CHICAGO, February 8—Around 70 people came together on the city’s south side this evening to celebrate Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) ongoing tradition of recognizing and taking leadership from working-class Black communists. A broad age-range of workers attended, from students in their teens to people with four or more decades of fighting this fascist system.
Features of our third annual Black and Red Dinner were heart-felt, personal and political stories from two comrades, and attendance from a greater number of younger people who responded to our message of antiracism and the leadership of Black workers being a key part of our Party’s fight for communist-led worker power.
The program was engaging, and those who joined us for the first time noted that we didn’t just give lip-service to Black comrades leading the work. It is a stance proven by action that we carry out as a necessary part of worldwide communist revolution.
An ongoing tradition of communist Black leadership
For the dinner’s keynote speech, a comrade presented the history of the antiracist line of the Party, and recognition of the continued importance of leadership from Black workers to our movement. He talked about the how early communist theorist and revolutionary Karl Marx was very much influenced by communal societies he studied from all over the world. Marx was outspoken about the enslavement and continued oppression of Black people in the United States, noting in his influential book Capital that “Labor in a white skin cannot emancipate itself where it is branded in a black skin.”
The comrade went on to highlight the leadership of Black workers here in Chicago, and around the world. Writers and activists, noted communists and those influenced by communist theories/theorists, such as Franz Fanon, Angela Davis, the founders of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Claudia Jones, Harry Haywood, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, and more. They all wrote about recognizing that the fight for liberation from racism is linked to class oppression internationally.
The second speaker of the night talked about her influences to both join the Party in college, and now taking on further responsibility for leading the work. Noting the mentoring she received from another Black comrade, she said she was made more confident in her abilities because of the example set by the people who won her to PLP. She dedicated her speech to her teenage daughter—herself a maturing antiracist fighter—passing encouragement through the generations.
Working-class inspired music and games
One of the highlights of the event was the contagiously-enthusiastic participation of about twenty youth present. During an entertaining songwriting activity, a mixed group of teens, comrades, and adult workers came up with powerful and inspiring lyrics that were also bilingual, to a tune of artist Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road (Remix):
We got the workers in the front, bosses on their a**, Power to the People, Power to the Working Class!
Fighting for our rights, every day and night, power in our sight, we will all unite…
The bosses can’t tell us nothing, they can’t tell us nothing...
Obreros unidos, ¡jamás serán vencidos! Arriba, abajo — ¡Los jefes al carajo! (Workers united, will never be defeated! Up, down – Bosses, go to hell!)
The entire room erupted in applause!
Another fun activity the event organizers put together was a version of Jeopardy, with all of the categories being about Black communists, including historical events (such as PLP beating down the Nazis and integrating Chicago’s Marquette Park in the 1970s) and personal quotes. Once again, the high school students in the room took the lead, answering the most questions, hands down. It was truly inspirational to watch these youth—the future of our Party—embracing antiracist history and politics.
Antiracist action and theory
During this election season, the liberals who have already been proven to be the main threat for our class, are willing to promise every concession imaginable. What they will never follow through on is true freedom from the continued humiliation and death of racism, sexism, capitalism and imperialism.
In our Party’s document, Black Workers’ Leadership: Key Revolutionary Force (see www.plp.org) we explain the need to fight racism in all aspects of our work: “Racism is the main tool the ruling class has to divide the working class.” We understand that racism and capitalism go hand in hand. Voting for liberals or whatever “lesser-evil” presents itself under capitalism will never free us from their destructive effects. The exploitation of Black workers worldwide had been integral to the growth of this murderous system.
The historical fightback and continued leadership of Black workers in our ranks has strengthened our understanding and actions. Those who have experienced the worst of this system must give leadership in tearing it down. Join us in rising up and fighting back!