BROOKLYN, NY, June 19—“Leave these kids alone, they were just playing!” “NO ONE wants you here so LEAVE!” “Back away from these kids NOW!” About two dozen Kingsborough Community College students, plus faculty, friends and members of the communist Progressive Labor Party were gathered for our Juneteenth barbecue at a park surrounded by families and children. When two NYPD officers pulled up and ordered a nearby group of children to play elsewhere, we sprang into action gathering our forces!

As the officers got right in the face bullying one twelve-year-old shouting if they were a “tough guy”, we surrounded the kids in protection and commanded the kkkops to leave. The kkkops appeared to retreat, but then followed the children toward a playground and continued threatening them. We organized a crowd again and after a second confrontation, where an exasperated officer said he wished he could beat us up, they’re the ones who beat it!

This incident summarizes our year of struggle at KCC. And after ups and downs, sharp discussions alongside strengthening confidence and unity, KCC’s struggle and our Party have grown and given us a taste of real victory: our multiracial, multigender students’ determined leadership in confrontation with the kkkops IS that victory, a year in the making! Amidst a dark night of imperialism and fascism, a new generation is fighting back and leading the international working class closer to communist revolution.

Spring ’23: Antiracist class struggle in session!
The year of struggle began with our response to a police attack on our friend Adrian and continued as weeks became months of resistance to police and administrative harassment throughout the winter (see previous CHALLENGEs). When we returned to campus in the spring, students continued to struggle through the campus police and administration’s months of daily and ongoing harassment, lies, gaslighting, and academic charges against both students and faculty in Common Ground.

We continued mass leafleting to counter the administration’s lies, while in PLP study groups we analyzed the KCC struggle and the world situation through CHALLENGE editorials and Party documents like Reform and Revolution. A student supporter created a website for us, and we formed a legal defense committee to handle the numerous charges and investigations against us.

KCC admins harass Black student; are taught a lesson
Our main task during this period was “court support.” The KCC administration outrageously charged the Black student who was called the n-word by the racist student in November. So, for each interrogation with the college attorney, we organized a crowd of friends and supporters to walk with them and wait outside in solidarity. When the administration —led by a liberal Black woman president and college attorney— tried bullying the student into accepting a disciplinary letter for “moving threateningly” in response to being called the n-word, this solidarity helped build their confidence they had done NOTHING wrong as the victim of racist attack. At the final interrogation, the student demanded a hearing in front of a tribunal of students and faculty. The administration caved in and agreed to a deal on OUR terms!

Revolt is necessary! Rutgers strike solidarity
Spring Break was spent at the Rutgers – Newark strike (see CHALLENGE, 4/26). KCC, other CUNY students and faculty, and PL’ers came over three days, bringing food, drumming skills, and CHALLENGE to the striking graduate students. KCC students also played an enthusiastic role in anti-scab duty, volunteering to patrol campus buildings in response to reports of scab classes, interrupt and occupy the scab classes they found, and invite the students and staff to join the strike.

Striking Rutgers students shared their lessons in building a movement through years of base building, communist political struggle and uniting workers through rank-and-file leadership. While liberal “democratic socialist” union misleaders sabotaged the strike movement at every opportunity, a victory was in convincing workers that if we want change, “revolt is necessary.”

Discussing the powerful Rutgers experiences, we resolved to strengthen the student-worker alliance needed to prepare for actions like walkouts, increasing CHALLENGE distribution, and build for a mass NY/NJ strike movement against racist police, racist tuition increases and worsening learning conditions. In Common Ground, we proposed and collectively drafted a May Day leaflet calling for student-worker unity. We collectively translated it with the help of two of our Chinese-speaking students, and shared it with our Chinese-speaking cafeteria workers.

May Day: Students walkout!
After speaking at PLP’s May Day event, on Monday, May 1, 31 KCC students and faculty walked out of class into the cafeteria, and marched chanting “Racism means? WE GOT TO FIGHT BACK!” out through the campus gates. A group of students and faculty continued onward to a demonstration of several hundred mainly Chinese and Spanish-speaking home health workers at New York City Hall demanding an end to 24-hour shifts and 12-hours’ pay. 500 copies of our English/ Spanish/ Chinese leaflet were gone within an hour! We will stay in touch with these workers.

Afterwards, students and faculty joined with other CUNY students and faculty at Hunter College. We made it just in time to greet Hunter students and faculty staging their own walk-out. In a speech addressing over 100 CUNY students, a KCC student defiantly addressed how the police represent this racist system demanding our obedience, but we will never obey! KCC students concluded May Day helping lead the CUNY student march from Hunter College through Central Park.

Following the police confrontation on Juneteenth, we reflected on our year while gearing up for PLP’s Summer Project. The more we dared to struggle and build confidence in each other and in the working class, the more we dared to fight back. We have a whole world to win! The struggle continues, and we’ll see you at the Summer Project. JOIN US!

HAITI, July 2—Since January 2023, the two-year “Humanitarian Parole” program has offered Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans and Salvadorans the possibility of entering the U.S. without going through the traditional “illegal” channels. This program, which in reality aims to reduce the number of migrants crossing the U.S. borders, has been praised by many Haitian workers and others who only dream of fleeing a country plagued by gang terror, economic misery, and political instability. Even children only talk about traveling. But the reality is that U.S. imperialism prefers to camouflage the problems that we are facing more than to really come to our rescue. In the capitalist world, solidarity is not an option: the big fish have no mercy for the little ones—the countries of the global north have no compassion for the countries of the global south. Their only aim is to squeeze profits off the cheap labor of migrants.

“I can't wait, I can't wait any longer for my approval to come,” admits a young graduate in legal sciences who is doing his second year of internship as a lawyer. He draws up a list of others like himself who have sponsors in the U.S. and have already applied to the program. He adds that many of these applicants, who have been waiting six months in limbo, are in danger of developing mental disorders from the stress, in particular depression. They are living on the edge, fearful of the insecurity created by the gangs and the rampant inflation that increasingly impoverishes them and their families. And there are others who can not find sponsors because the conditions set by Biden & Co. are very difficult for sponsoring friends and family members.

Those who do manage to leave come from all sections of society: workers (employed and unemployed), professionals, public and private executives, teachers and students. “Our country is pushing us out; we are not needed here,” said one person interviewed for this article. “It’s like we are in a pressure cooker, and the chief chef has opened the valve to let some steam out. This won’t solve the problems that the Haitian masses are facing because of the profit system.”

This is the march to Canaan, the Promised Land. Some people say it is a forced exodus even believing that the U.S. has hidden interests. Many know that what waits for them on the other side is not the gold in the streets but rather more racism, unemployment or low-wage jobs, underserved schools and hospitals, crowded and overpriced housing. So many deplore the program, but the contradiction is that it is hard to resist the urge to take advantage of it. They hope they will be able to fade into the population after the two-year “parole” ends.

U.S. Imperialists Can’t Find Other Countries to Intervene/Invade Haiti
For several months now, the “international community,” that is the imperialists and their local lackeys, have been dithering on finding a solution to the crisis in Haiti. None of the countries in the region is willing to give in to U.S. demands to field an invasionary force to restore some semblance of stability. The U.S. bosses’ decline in influence in the region is evident. Even Canada, a long-time imperialist player in Haiti, is hedging; the best they could come up with is setting up an office in the neighboring Dominican Republic to monitor the situation. The Dominican government rejected that idea, and both countries issued a toothless statement regarding their commitment to stability in Haiti.

The politicians in the Haitian bourgeoisie continue to act as if they are wearing blinders. Most working class people understand that these politicians are not their friends but are looking out for their own personal interests, looking for any opportunity for some sort of power grab. The local bourgeoisie crawls on hands and knees, in search of favor from the imperialist powers and multinational organizations.

The only solution is to stand up and fight back
You can feel the level of insecurity and fear in the masses. So when a Progressive Labor Party comrade says that she is not going to look for a sponsor to leave, that she is willing to “fight back against the capitalist system that has created this mess,” she is often met with skepticism. But using patience and all the tools of historical and dialectical materialism that she has learned in PLP cadre schools and study groups, she can say that the workers of Haiti have fought for their liberation in the past and will do so again. Capitalism and imperialism have built-in contradictions that make life a misery for one, very large class of human beings who produce all value in society. That we have not just a few Polish soldiers (who deserted Napoleon’s army during the Haitian Revolution and fought on the side of the enslaved workers), but will fight for the solidarity and unity of the entire international working class. We will build a new revolutionary communist movement that fights resolutely in the interests of our class.

This young comrade can make the difference in our ability to organize workers for communism and an egalitarian society! We have taken modest steps, engaging with our local populations in fighting against “food insecurity”—hunger through collective kitchens; organizing to provide masks and public sanitation kiosks against the Covid-19 pandemic; working together with our neighbors to rebuild homes and infrastructure after the 2021 earthquake in our area. These are all struggles that our Party initiated along with our friends to combat the local bosses who neglect the needs of workers and line their own pockets with ‘international aid.”

We can do better and we can do more. There are many more like her who would like to maintain their conviction and their composure in such troubling social, economic and political situations. In the current chaos, the ideological foresight of the members of the PLP is revolutionary. Raising class consciousness through struggle and political education is a necessity for the growth of our Party. This will be our goal this summer in our cadre school.

Long live our struggle, long live PLP. Onwards to the final victory!

PAKISTAN, July 3—Pakistan is in deep trouble! Political instability, economic destruction, religious sectarianism, skyrocketing inflation, poverty, nationalism, racism and chaos are pushing the country on the brink of destruction thanks to capitalism, a system spiraling further into crisis, and escalating inter-imperialist competition. A former ruling party (PTI) was removed from the government through a vote of no confidence which resulted in tightened surveillance, state oppression, police torture and disappearances. Amid this political instability, PLP is trying to organize for communism.

Dangers of compromising with the bosses
Capitalist bosses are using various tactics to continue the exploitation of the working class. They use their puppets to scare the masses from even thinking about making a revolution. In the 1960s when the masses were angry with the capitalist system and trying to organize into a party (Communist Party of Pakistan) to overthrow capitalism, the soil was not ripe for a revolution and the party was very tiny.

So the bosses used their puppets to convince the party leaders that ‘it is good time to overthrow the government and make a revolution,’ which resulted in a failed attempt. Quickly all the leadership and dedicated members were arrested and blamed for conspiracy against the state.

Many of them were sentenced for life time imprisonment, some were killed and some left the country to find a safe place.

Again in the mid-seventies when the masses were fed up with the system, they started to join a newly formed phony Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), to bring change and get rid of exploitation. Progressive student leaders, union leaders, intellectuals and workers joined the PPP with the hope that these so-called progressive leaders will help them out of poverty, illiteracy and exploitation, promising land to the landless.
They were not revolutionaries; they just used the name of the working class and exploited the sentiments of oppressed people to take power but did not take any steps to ease the life of the working class.

The workers’ dreams of a prosperous and poverty-free Pakistan were dashed.

Today, as Progressive Labor Party (PLP) continues to spread communist ideas here, and continues to blossom, we are hopeful that one day we can destroy this rotten system once and for all, and replace it with a system where all workers are safe and can flourish.

Capitalist crisis and chaos
There is ongoing political infighting and crisis in Pakistan. Recently, when the political and economic conditions of Pakistan were calling on the poor working class to build a strong anti-capitalist movement, it was another bosses’ trap. The bosses galvanized Imran Khan and his followers to attack military installations, martyrs’ monuments, military and police vehicles and personnel.

This resulted in a strong retaliation from the state, attacking both the ruling class and the working class. The government banned internet services for several weeks and started to monitor every conversation over the phone or internet. Many innocent people were arrested because they had a telephone conversation with the people involved in attacking the military installations.

Imran Khan (IK) and his goons thought that attacking the military installations they could oust the military leadership, and they would get another chance to rule and bleed the working class dry. Firstly IK blamed the U.S. for “regime change” to get the sympathies of common people, but when he realized that U.S. bosses were angered by his  blame game, he changed his tune, and begged them again for help.

A few days ago it was exposed by the defense minister in a TV interview that a rebellion against new military leadership and the newly formed government, was unsuccessful. Many military officers involved in this conspiracy are held by security forces. Now almost all the senior leadership of PTI left the party.

Amid the chaos of the Khan faction versus Pakistan’s military establishment standoff, the PLP is striving for international communist revolution. We are preparing the soil to ripen into an international communist revolution by organizing workers, peasants and students in our rank and file. We believe that only the working class and their party, PLP, can get rid of exploitation, poverty, inequality, slavery and injustice by forging an international struggle against capitalism. Long live international communist revolution!

CHICAGO, June 14 – Today dozens of workers and youth flooded the monthly Chicago Park District (CPD) board meeting in anticipation of the board’s decision on whether for-profit “megafests” would continue to be allowed in city parks. Unsurprisingly, the city bosses voted unanimously to permit the rock carnival Riot Fest to take over Douglass Park in the majority Black and Latin neighborhood of Lawndale yet again this September.

The crowd inside the board meeting included both those in favor and opposed to Riot Fest. Threatened with likely the sharpest resistance in the eight years since they moved to Douglass Park, the Riot Fest bosses and their paid cronies pulled out all the stops. They mobilized workers through racist and predatory lies about how the festival will benefit them materially, when in fact under capitalism it’s only the bosses who profit.

The communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has been active in the grassroots efforts to expel for-profit megafests, connecting with a multiracial core of community members in struggle. Throughout this bold fight, many important lessons are being learned – the message PLP fights for is that it will ultimately require a worker-run communist society to guarantee that public spaces truly belong to the working class!

Workers fight megafests head on
Since first coming to Douglass Park in 2015, the annual presence of Riot Fest has been a major point of contention for many workers in the neighborhood. Over the course of a three-day weekend, typical crowds average some 50,000 concert goers a day in what is mainly a residential area that also borders two safety-net hospitals.

Including set-up and take down, Riot Fest essentially blocks off access to one of the largest public parks in Chicago to countless workers and youth for weeks at a time. Youth lose access to recreational spaces, wildlife and plants are trampled, and transport and parking become a nightmare for those living and working in the area. With all this considered, it’s no surprise that workers organized to kick Riot Fest out of nearby Humboldt Park before the concert bosses switched gears to invade Douglass!

Thankfully, workers in Lawndale haven’t been willing to lay down for profit-hungry megafests without a fight either. They have gone door-knocking to reach other workers to gather over two thousand signatures opposing megafests, in addition to organizing social events, press conferences, park clean-up days, and public art. Many testimonies have been given at CPD board meetings and other public forums expressing in personal ways how the megafests are a detriment to working-class health.

On account of these efforts, two other megafests decided not to return for this summer. But Riot Fest stubbornly holds on, with its eye on the millions of dollars in profit to be made at our expense. In the lead-up to today’s vote, they have tried to rehabilitate their image to the role of “community builder” and “job creator,” but workers have seen through the lies. One contractor infamously insulted workers during a “community” meeting by suggesting they should learn English (Chicago Reader, 8/4/22). Another public forum in April fell apart after concert organizers again belittled workers present (Block Club, 4/7).

Liberal city bosses will always fail workers
All this considered, the atmosphere inside the board meeting was charged. Most couldn’t even get into the room where the permit vote was being decided and remained outside in the lobby where there were open confrontations. Most disgusting was the division sowed by Lawndale alderwoman Monique Scott who implied that all those organizing against Riot Fest were white and that it was “anti-Black” to oppose the concert.
A slideshow presentation of lofty promises was rolled out by Riot Fest of supposed benefits and agreements to the neighborhoodz. These promises have little to zero accountability attached to them and will likely never come to pass. But it provided enough cover of a “process” for CPD to give the approval.

It was apparent that the Board had no real intention of denying the permit, and just wanted to give the illusion of a “democratic” process when in fact it was already a done deal. There shouldn’t be anything more expected when it comes to pro-capitalist institutions–they exist to uphold and facilitate profit-making for the bosses. This will continue to be the case until there is a mass working-class movement and communist party such as PLP to finally seizes power from these bosses.

Keep marching forward
Another year of Riot Fest is a setback, but this struggle is far from over. Many valuable lessons have been learned that we will carry with us to fight smarter and recruit more workers to the cause. The course of history is never linear; there are always advances and retreats. Like the communists in China once said: Dare to struggle, dare to win!