Howard U. Students Invade Pol’s Office, Back Katrina Victims

Howard U. Students Invade Pol’s Office, Back Katrina Victims
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Twenty students from Howard University marched from campus to the office of Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) who has been complicit in the gentrification process of New Orleans by blocking a moderate bill that would have supposedly guaranteed one-for-one replacement of demolished affordable housing.  Vitter was “unavailable,” so the students sat-in, demanding action. A dozen cops were called to intimidate the students, to no avail. The students presented a petition signed by 400 students to Vitter’s aide demanding that Vitter stop blocking the bill, and the students vowed to return to his office in solidarity with public housing residents in New Orleans, while several students will also return this summer to continue the struggle in New Orleans itself. Several of these bold students joined the May Day march in New York City and brought their message of struggle against fascism to the May Day dinner.

These actions were a result of Howard University Political Education and Action Committee spending spring break in New Orleans working with “C3/Hands Off Iberville,” a coalition of New Orleans activists and public housing residents fighting against the demolition of their public housing homes.  Major real estate developers, with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New Orleans City Council, are using the lie that Hurricane Katrina made public housing uninhabitable to demolish affordable housing and replace it with high-end condos.  They already did this—before the storm!—by demolishing St. Thomas public housing and creating River Garden, with only 200 affordable of the 700 that had been promised to the community.

New Orleans gives us an early look at fascism USA. Bulldozers and police brutalize people and their homes, while the ruling class tests out strategies of social control while letting their buddies make huge profits from the “recovery.”  All the more reason to fight for revolution!

May Day Sees PL’s Ideas Growing in Spain

SPAIN, May 1st — “I knew the PLP in the United States,” said a Spanish youth when he got a PLP leaflet. He was happy to find out that communist political work is a lot bigger throughout the world than he thought. “Long Live May Day! Long live the working class!,” we chanted today. Here and in all parts of the world, the work of the Progressive Labor Party is clear: spread the true ideas of communism far and wide.

The Workers’ Commissions unions Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (UGI in Spanish) in Spain organized a May Day march for workers from all over, but in reality workers know that these reformists and revisionists are part of the capitalist system and that the only thing they’re good for is to try to pacify the masses. We won’t rest. We’ll keep working hard to bring the workers the real revolutionary struggle, not like these sellouts.

It was a real celebration. There were workers from all parts of the world, and we passed out many communist leaflets in the march. I believe that with a lot of concentration, our work will grow a lot. We have made ties with workers and have vowed to bring them CHALLENGE and other material to be able to build the fight to destroy this capitalist system that kills the working class and finally to implant the only solution for the international working class: THE COMMUNIST SYSTEM!

PLP’ers Make Mark At Colombia May Day

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, May 1 — A 100-strong contingent led by PLP participated in the May Day march here. Amid pro-capitalist reformist ideas pushed by union hacks and fake leftists as the “solution” to the pro-war policies of President Uribe’s death-squad government, U.S. rulers’ most loyal ally in the region, PLP’s internationalist communist politics stood out. Our revolutionary chants, distribution of 3,000 communist leaflets and hundreds of DESAFIOS brought many workers and youth around our contingent and joined our chants. (More next issue.)

PL-led Action Hits Mexico University’s Oppressive Rules

MEXICO, April 16 — PLP organized a protest at a school in UNAM (Autonomous University of Mexico) against the Rules of  Inscription reproduced on April 7th, in an edition of the “Rights and Obligations of the Universities” by the Administration’s Committee in “ Defense of the University Students.”

These rules require that only students who have finished their Bachelor’s degree in three years and with an average grade of nine (barely 10% of the students achieve this) are allowed to choose a major and their preferred school. This same rule excludes from UNAM those who finish their bachelor’s degree in more than 4 years. And for the faculty, to achieve permanent status, a professor would have to work 5 times longer (505% more) than the current plan.

The UNAM student strike of 1999-2000 demanded the repeal of this same rule. In the face of the mass and prolonged protest against the police intervention to smash the strike, the Rector declared that this rule would be suspended until it was discussed in the University Congress (that they could never organize). However, since the protests got smaller, now the government in using the Administration’s  Committee in the Defense “of the university students” to remind us of their regulation. The majority of students are against this.

The PLP quickly called for a protest inside one of the schools where we demanded that the Director take the message of our anger against this ruling to his superiors. We also demanded a cafeteria for the students, improvements in the showers in the sports area, and permanent status for the “interim” professors, some of whom have been in this interim situation for 10 years, and other demands.

About 60 students came to the protest and hundreds watched it, including teachers and workers who’ve shown their support and agreement. We brought red banners of PLP and we talked abut the need to build a new type of proletarian party that fights directly for Communism.

We recognize that even though we’ve been timid in putting forward the ideas of the liberation of the working class, we’ve taken steps that have also led to the  math professors demanding the same things of the school administration. We’ve also carried out a campaign to distribute copies of PLP’s Road to Revolution IV. Several professors have shown us their support and encouragement to continue fighting actively for revolution.
Greetings to all the comrades!

May Day Spirit Spurs Seattle Summer Project

SEATTLE, WA., May 3 — “The world needs communist politics now more than ever,” declared a young Party worker, our keynote speaker, at tonight’s May Day Dinner. He followed an Iraq veteran who urged all to continue fighting U.S. imperialism’s Mid-East occupation at the upcoming “Winter Soldier” events. Finally, a student leader invited the multi-racial group of students, educators, campus workers, military veterans, active-duty soldiers, Boeing workers and families to join our July Summer Project.

The keynote speaker outlined the brutal attacks from U.S. bosses preparing for wider wars, eventually World War III, how they need to attack workers at home in order to attack workers abroad. Fascist intimidations cited included 2.4 million now languishing in prisons, neglected Katrina survivors, the assassination of Sean Bell, the brutal exploitation of Latino immigrants in war factories and government immigration raids.

“Ultimately,” our speaker said, “this racism is used to divide us and hide the fact that wage slavery is the curse of all workers regardless of ‘race’ and gender.” Just ask the striking American Axel workers how the wage system “serves” them!

Many volunteered for our July Summer Project as we fight for “the hearts and minds” of Boeing workers whose contract expires this fall, and of soldiers at nearby Ft. Lewis (one in attendance) and McChord Air Force base.

One friend brought her husband, who “loves to talk politics.” He was not disappointed. Between mouthfuls of food, we discussed how communist society could and should function, how to make communist politics primary, and how to have confidence that our Party and the working class can lead society.

Between the dinner and Thursday’s May Day immigration march we distributed EVERY CHALLENGE in the city to readers and sellers. A thousand leaflets about the communist international spirit of May Day and another about Sean Bell circulated among marchers, in Boeing shops and other workplaces, homes and classes. Friends gave generously as we passed the hat to help pay for all the literature.

A Boeing retiree we’ve known for over 30 years made a special contribution and then took extra literature for a mosque and a mostly black church. “I’m glad to see you passing the hat,” he said. “This good stuff costs plenty.”

On weekends prior to May Day, a team visited Boeing readers and sellers at their homes to discuss the ideas our friends were already reading in CHALLENGE over coffee (a Seattle obsession!). This helped make our dinner a modest success.

Class struggle and agitation are crucial, but without these personal ties, we will remain stuck in neutral.
We’ll expand these team visits between now and the Summer Project to bring the communist class-consciousness expressed by our young keynote speaker to many more in the area.

“Today on May Day,” he concluded, “we remember that it’s the working class who built this world; we planted every field and laid every brick. All the wealth of the world was created through the labor of the working class. This world is not for us to slave in, but to master and to own. We have nothing to lose but our chains and a world to win.”

Mexico May Day Inspires Re-commitment to PLP

MEXICO CITY,  May 1st— A group of members and friends of PLP participated in the mass May Day March in Mexico City where hundreds of thousands of workers come to show their anger against the capitalist system and its government. We distributed 15,000 leaflets and 300 CHALLENGES in which we exposed the capitalist system including the privatization of oil and the need for a communist revolution in order to build a society that meets the needs of the working class.

Our contingent marched with banners and chanted slogans like , “LONG LIVE COMMUNISM! DEATH TO CAPITALISM!’’ AND “ONE CLASS ONE PARTY, WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!” We also sang songs like “Bandera Roja” and “Bella Chao” and of course the INTERNATIONAL. We were a small militant group but we captured the attention of many marchers.

After the march we had a gathering where we talked about the day’s activities. One of the things thatinspired many comrades was that many new youth participated with us who hadn’t before. One of them said that he’d participated in other organizations and that none of them had convinced him as PLP had.

That’s why he asked that we keep inviting him to future meetings. We decided to have a meeting this same week to plan some activities and to maintain constant communication.

Another thing that inspired many was the participation of someone who had been inactive in the last few years. At the end of the march, this friend gave a small speech in which he talked about why it’s important to celebrate May Day and the need to continue organizing the working class, thus announcing his recommitment to the Party. Some suggested that he help organize a cadre school about political economy and help in continuing to deepen the political understanding of more comrades.

We hope that next year we’ll have a bigger contingent with more political leadership.

S.F. Bay Area: PLP’s May Day Activities Cover the Waterfront

BAY AREA, CALIF. — PLP members and friends celebrated May Day in activities throughout Northern California, providing many opportunities to advance our communist politics. Despite the limitations of liberal-led marches and rallies, workers were open to our revolutionary message. The ongoing struggle to develop newer Party members and recruit new ones remains the main limitation of our potential. Despite this we spread our communist ideas throughout all the May Day events.

In the inland port city of Stockton, Party members made contacts with longshoremen who had struck for eight hours to protest the war in Iraq. In San Francisco, by selling CHALLENGE and distributing leaflets to the dockers, significantly we brought a communist revolutionary analysis to this otherwise liberal-led march and rally. Previously, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU) had struck against the World Trade Organization in Seattle; for the framed Mumia Abu Jamal; and an “unofficial” one-day protest of an on-the-job death of one of their comrades.

These actions refute the lie that workers won’t fight around “political issues.” But they’re all framed to appeal to the capitalist electoral system. This ties into those capitalists who trace the Iraq war to the Bush administration attempt to run the Iraq war “on the cheap,” while undermining the overall U.S. world position. This is a far cry from the workers taking the bosses’ war head on. (See box.) Our challenge is to push beyond these limits and bring revolutionary politics to the forefront.

We also attended a rally and March in Dolores Park where a PL teacher met with former students who helped distribute our literature there.

In Oakland, PLP members joined the immigrant rights march. Those around us picked up our chants, focused on internationalism, working-class unity and revolutionary ideas. The march grew larger as it progressed and was the most multi-racial in recent years. Four student friends of the Party from a local university marched with us. Several Party members have already followed up contacts made there.

Elsewhere in the inland Bay Area, a young teacher comrade participated in a march organized by teachers against the budget cuts at their school. We hope to continue to develop this class struggle.

Transit workers, teachers and college students attended a May Day dinner this weekend. Old friends enjoyed good food, great speeches, and an afternoon of communist celebration. A conversation with an old friend revealed how the reality of life can be used to show workers that capitalism is the root of our problems. Our challenge is to present communist revolution as the answer. Overall, this May Day helped build the influence of the Bay Area Party.

BOXXXXXX

During the May 1st West Coast dock strike, the ILWU continued to load military supplies bound for Iraq. They said, “We wanted to show we oppose the war but support the troops.” This position undermined the protest as one opposing the war.

Ninety years ago, Seattle dockworkers showed a clearer resolve. Then U.S. bosses had landed troops in Siberia to back Russian counter-revolutionaries opposing the Soviet revolution, one of 17 capitalist countries trying to destroy it. When a shipment of 50 rail cars loaded with “sewing machines” arrived in Seattle for dispatch to Russia, the longshoremen, thinking it odd that a country embroiled in civil war would need so many sewing machines, “accidentally” dropped a crate.   It was filled with rifles bound for the U.S.-backed Russian general Kolchak. The longshoremen refused to load it and called for a permanent boycott of shipments to Russia. When 40 scabs showed up to load the weapons, they were met by 400 longshoremen.

Of course, it was a different world in 1918. The despair that had gripped communists when the Second International had caved into supporting their national governments’ war efforts was wiped away by the success of the revolution in Russia. Revolutionary optimism became primary. Thousands of pamphlets, leaflets and newspaper articles had influenced workers in Seattle about the struggle to support the first Workers’ Republic. Dock workers can learn from this international workers’ solidarity by U.S. workers.

Celebrating May Day Coast to Coast

NEW YORK CITY, May 3 — Over 800 workers, students and soldiers from the East Coast kicked off PLP May Day here with a bang. Activities spread across the city.

“The Workers, United, Will Never be Defeated” chanted nearly 200 members and friends of PLP marching through Brooklyn streets carrying red flags and banners calling for unity of the international working class and the need to smash police terror with a communist revolution. Anger over the acquittal of Sean Bell’s NYPD execution squad and billionaire Mayor Bloomberg’s racist budget cuts spurred several high schools walkouts on May 1 (see page 3) and lent an extra urgency to this year’s May Day. Passing cars responded enthusiastically to our signs, “Honk if you hate racist police murder.”  Over 2,600 CHALLENGES were distributed.

The State of the World….

All the events heard state-of-the-world talks, one showing why capitalism only offers a future of more war and fascism regardless of who wins the 2008 election and inspired renewed optimism by connecting the growth represented on May Day with the necessity and ability of the working class to create a communist future, without minimizing the hard reality of the difficulties in building such a movement.

At another dinner the two keynote speeches were written and delivered by young female comrades who showed polished political analysis, poise and righteous anger over the capitalist system that wages war against the working class for bosses’ profit. The speeches emphasized class struggle and the unity of female and male workers worldwide, as well as a call to combat a capitalist society mired in crisis and marked by endless wars.

And a third dinner’s speech stressed that despite what cynics say, workers can be won to fight capitalism. But these ideas don’t fall from the sky. Workers need communist leadership and need to become communist leaders themselves.

Life Teaches the Reason for — and History of — PLP

A highlight at one celebration was hearing why comrades from three generations joined the Party: One who met a PL’er in his church was physically confronted by cops on horseback at an anti-war march, sparking the realization that democracy does not work. Everything learned over time from the PL’er then clicked; he now knew the real solution was to fight for communism.

Another joined after several hard experiences in community organizations led to the conclusion that reform doesn’t work. Although initially disagreeing with some things, after years of struggle he realized that they were necessary. Being in PLP and building a base in the working class simply became the right thing to do.
The third joined at age 12 to “be part of a group,” but after two years of study groups, club meetings, summer projects and ideological struggle, fighting for communism and being a member of PLP took on a whole new meaning.

A brief history of PLP was viewed through the lens of one member’s life experience as a teacher. When NYC parents fought for more control of their children’s schools in the 1960’s, thousands of teachers followed their racist union leadership to strike against a mostly black and Latino community. This member was part of a PLP-led fight to physically open the schools as well as launch “freedom schools.” One member recalled being called a racist epithet at five years old for crossing the racist picket line.

Stay Tuned for Communist Revolution!

Young people were front and center throughout the evening, from the planning to the speeches to the cultural performances, showing the Party’s growing vitality and attention to developing new leadership. A poignant skit created by a group of twenty young people highlighted youth leadership as it exposed military recruitment as a scam to win youth to fight and die in imperialist wars to defend the profit system. The skits and an open mic showcased the drive and enthusiasm youth have to grasp revolutionary ideas and make them their own.

Several veterans of PLP’s military work emphasized the importance of youth enlisting to build PLP.  Many ideas were also presented on how to win veterans who return home disillusioned from receiving nothing of what they were promised and scarred by U.S. imperialist atrocities. A young female industrial worker did a great job explaining to the young people present just how powerful the workers can be when won to communist ideas.

The crowd was inspired by an outpouring of original communist music, poetry and visual art by three generations of comrades and friends of the Party. Individual comrades took the floor to give detailed answers to key questions, such as, “How will communism fight to destroy racism, sexism, and nationalism?” and “How can joining the Party change the world?”

All in all, these workers, soldiers and students assembled on a highly-charged day that both celebrated past achievements and pointed toward a challenging but ultimately victorious future on the road to a communist society. “Stay tuned!”

LOS ANGELES

April 26 — “The bosses can’t carry on their wars without workers producing for these wars,” declared a woman industrial worker at a May Day Dinner. “We are those industrial workers! The factories are the heart of the society and they need to be the heart of the revolution. That’s why it’s so important that we organize in the factories using CHALLENGE networks….I’m an industrial worker and CHALLENGE opened my eyes to the reality of capitalism, oppression and discrimination at work….It’s very important to expand the readership of CHALLENGE so that our fellow workers can understand the racism, sexism and exploitation which we are forced to live with and can join with us in the PLP. Long live Communism!”
Another comrade explained that “Revolutions only happen if there’s a communist party with the correct ideas and a political base among workers and others, especially industrial workers.” The speaker cited “the Bolsheviks [who] didn’t retreat….under fascist repression, concentrating in the factories and the armed forces…. [With] unbreakable confidence in the working class and in turn the workers’ great confidence in them, they achieved the ‘impossible’ in 1917 when the workers took power.”
One speaker reported on the struggles in the colleges against cutbacks and on the Summer Project to bring communist politics to workers. Speakers highlighted the key role of soldiers in fighting to end imperialist war with revolution. At one event a high school student presented the historic importance of May Day, followed by a comrade who linked the legacy of May Day to the 1968 worker-student uprising in France, citing the decisive role of workers, the need for the worker-student alliance and the political leadership of a truly communist party like PLP.  A moving poem captured outrage at the effects of capitalism as well as the desire to fight for communism.

About 300 people participated in these activities, enjoying songs and delicious international food and camaraderie. They reflected intense political struggle throughout the year to bring communist politics to workplaces, schools and friends. We concluded with enthusiastic preparations for the distribution of CHALLENGE, leaflets and flags for the May Day immigrant-rights march. J

DETROIT

April 26 — Today PLP re-established its May Day tradition in Detroit with a dinner of over two dozen workers, teachers and youth, including special guests from the American Axle picket lines.

A young community college teacher gave a brief history of May Day, how the PLP re-established May Day in the U.S., and how he looks forward to marching each year to advance international communist revolution. A couple from American Axle spoke about the difficulties of the strike and how the UAW leadership was in bed with the AAM bosses and GM to cut their wages.

A third speaker talked about the acquittal of the killer cops who murdered an unarmed black man Sean Bell in NYC on his wedding day. He said that the bosses need racist police terror to enforce a future of wage cuts, poverty and war, and that the Sean bell case and the American Axle strike were two very good reasons to join PLP and build a revolutionary movement to smash the racist rulers.

This may be a small step in the big picture, but it can be an important event for the future of PLP and the class struggle in Detroit.

MARCHING ON MAY DAY!! A PLP RECAP

LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES, May 1 — The red banners of communism waved high on Broadway in downtown LA, while PLP’ers distributed 8,000  communist leaflets and 3,600 CHALLENGES during the immigrant-rights march here. Our literature exposed the hypocrisy of the bosses and their politicians — both the liberal and conservative racists — their plans for wider imperialist war and the role of the pro-immigrant “leaders” who support deadly patriotic loyalty to the ruling class and the Democratic Party.

Fascism emerged early. Police and School District agents stopped some students from boarding a bus to go to the march, claiming “parental permission is not enough — you need permission from the District.”  Nonetheless, many of these students came, even more determined. Our multi-racial contingent had a strong, visible impact with our red shirts and flags, but most importantly with our chants calling for working-class unity and communist revolution.

The police, business leaders, march organizers and LAPD are congratulating themselves for their “good job.” This march was smaller than last year’s, partly because the leaders are pushing voting over marching, and partly from fear instilled in workers by last year’s racist police attack in MacArthur Park and the constant propaganda about the police preparing to “handle provocateurs.” In response we chanted, “Sean Bell’s killer cops mean…FIGHT BACK!”; and, “LAPD you can’t hide… We charge you with genocide!”

Street speeches, followed by slogans celebrating May Day as International Workers’ Day resonated throughout the march like: “The magic of our hands, that from nothing make everything. From the clothes, to the buildings to the cars to the airplanes. And even then, the bosses call us ignorant. We workers make everything of value in this society, that’s why we raise our fist and chant, “See this fist; Workers to Power!”

“Today millions of workers around the world march as one class against this rotten capitalist system, source of hunger, murders and wars…”

Some workers asked for and contributed money for our red flags. Others bought red shirts that call for workers’ unity and communism. The red flags contrasted sharply with the U.S. bosses’ flag march organizers imposed on workers. From the few years we’ve had contingents in the “immigrant-rights” marches, we have a presence many workers and youth now expect.

From these May Day activities, several people joined PLP. Others have become CHALLENGE distributors. The Party was strengthened and is preparing for our coming Summer Project. We will be bolder in taking CHALLENGE to our friends to help build the Project. These activities will provide communist political leadership to the working class which needs it more than ever, facing growing fascism and imperialist war. J

EL SALVADOR

A PLP leaflet provoked anger of leaders of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the May Day march of more than 75,000 workers through San Salvador, the capital. Workers demanded rice, beans, and some proclaimed support for the FMLN Presidential candidate, Mauricio Funes. A group of high school and university students painted on the walls “Proletarians of the World, Unite!” and chanted the slogan “Capitalists watch out—here come the communists!”

As usual CHALLENGE is anticipated by the working class every May Day. The PLP distributed 530 CHALLENGES and 3,800 communist leaflets.  The moment the leaflets and CHALLENGES began to be distributed, many workers came to get them. This caused a big impact because it attacked the electoral parties.

FMLN leaders in the sound trucks read a part of our leaflet and alerted workers to destroy the leaflets.  This made people read the leaflet on the spot. The FMLN security said they wouldn’t allow any propaganda that was not from them, following the same repressive practices as the right-wing ruling party, pro-U.S., Arena government.

Carlos Ruiz, Mayor of Soyapango and former leader of the extinct Salvadoran Communist Party and now the FMLN, stopped a comrade and questioned him about the leadership of PLP in El Salvador. A worker responded to him “Now, we don’t only have the oppressors of the government but we also have you.”  An ex-combatant of the FMLN reacted angrily and told him, “I fought so that these things would no longer happen and now you are the police.”

Confronted by this reaction, those from the FMLN retreated and the distribution of the paper and the leaflets continued. However, the comrades were followed and at one point a small part of their material (200 leaflets and 20 CHALLENGES) were taken. “This has to be shown to the leader of the FMLN,” said a servile follower of the electoral front.

Funes stated in the closing speech “Those who have damaged private property [referring to the graffiti] are social movements.” They have nothing to do with the FMLN as a political party.” He, along with other FMLN leaders, also expressed his gratitude for the presence of more than 600 uniformed police during the march and promised to raise their wages.

“Today ends the romance of some comrades who held some illusions about the FMLN,” said a comrade. Once more it’s been shown that the working class can’t trust these electoral parties, which are part of the capitalist system. The PLP’ers and friends activities felt stronger and with more confidence in the working class. Now our goal is to consolidate and recruit more comrades to PLP, as a step toward the communist revolution that will end the murderous capitalist system.

Washington D.C.

May 1 — PLP members here distributed over 100 CHALLENGES and hundreds of leaflets to the 200 people that attended this year’s immigration justice rally. The rally was smaller than last year, but more than half the marchers took home a copy of our communist newspaper! Many wore t-shirts and carried banners emphasizing unity among workers regardless of country or race.

Other organizations participating in the rally focused on reforming the system with new immigration laws, better housing policies, statehood for DC, and electoral politics in El Salvador. We spoke to rally-goers instead about the working class taking power through a revolutionary struggle.
One man from Central America agreed with our analysis that elections in the US or Latin America would not serve the working class.  He was thrilled to learn that there was a party that rejected nationalism and organized one party for all workers everywhere, and intends to work with us.J

CHICAGO, IL

May 1st – Our PLP contingent, an integrated and international group of around 50 people, raised the red flag and marched behind the banner, “Long Live Communism.” We led militant chants, distributed 1,000 CHALLENGES and DESAFIOS and 2,000 PLP May Day leaflets. We handed out 500 posters that read, “Smash All Borders/Destruir Todos Fronteras,” with the Party’s name and logo. A small but spirited health care contingent marched from Stroger (County) Hospital. Other Party members marched with their community and student organizations and an Iraq veterans group.

In just two years, the May Day March for Immigrant Rights has gone from over 500,000 in 2006 to maybe 15,000 in 2008. Unlike the previous two years, the bosses were not united behind the march, factories were not closed and workers were not given the day off to march. This shows that when you march under the bosses’ leadership, without a mass communist movement to challenge them, they can turn the movement off and on at will.

Other reasons for the poor turnout were increased fear and intimidation due to continuous immigration raids and deportations. Organizers warned marchers that the police attacks in L.A. last year were due to “other groups with different agendas.” Mayor Daley, whose cops are murdering young black and Latino men in record numbers, shared the stage with nationalists and revisionists, rappers and folk singers.

This march underlined the need to build the Party in the bosses’ mass organizations in this period of war and developing fascism. As the Presidential electoral circus moves millions to the ballot box, we must be patiently struggling to break them away from the racist rulers.

May Day Archive

Beside all the great things Progressive Labor Party has written about May Day, the Marxist Internet Archive has compiled historical resources to give the day various voices.

Check it out:

Marxist Internet Archive