CHICAGO, November 5 -- The spirit of communist revolution was strong tonight at Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) annual Bolshevik Revolution celebration. Over fifty multiracial, multigenerational workers and their families attended. We participated in discussions centered around the profit-based slaughter of workers and children in the Middle East and the role of U.S.  imperialism in that part of the world. We also built small models of the pro-worker bus stops that were built in the Soviet Union.  These bus stops were developed by the Soviet government to highlight multiethnic working-class culture and artistry, in contrast to the anti-communist lie that revolutionary society was bleak and barren of color.

The evening was highlighted by several dynamic speakers, including a Ford auto worker, fresh off the picket line, a worker from the Steelworkers Union, and a young PLP leader who gave the keynote address. The Ford worker talked about how he looked to the Party for leadership during the auto worker's strike. He first met the Party in high school, and more recently on the picket line. We look forward to inviting this auto worker to a study group and helping build the revolutionary movement in the auto industry.

The steelworkers’ union member stood at his union meeting to propose that their local support the auto worker's strike by sending a thousand dollars and organizing activities in support of their strike. Both proposals were approved. He explained how the concept of internationalism is so important, and that nationalist wars only benefit the capitalists:

"To me, when you look at the Ukrainian and Russian war, and the Israeli genocide, you see working people being slaughtered. It shows the terrible consequences when we let nationalism get the best of us. You see farmers killing farmers, miners killing miners, students killing students, unemployed killing unemployed. It's really oligarchs fighting oligarchs.  These wars are all about fighting for profits--from oil, raw materials, cheap labor, and markets. So, like striking, it takes guts to take internationalism and antiracism seriously. We have to look past phony borders that have been created to keep workers divided. Workers' lives have always improved when they have stuck together!"  

The keynote speaker gave reasons why we celebrate the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in 2023.  "We celebrate the Bolshevik Revolution because it was the first time the working class seized state power and liberated one-sixth of the world's land mass, and every worker in it from the grips of feudalism and capitalism.  We celebrate because the bosses want us to forget our working-class history.  We celebrate because sometimes it feels like we won't win. We celebrate because we need to remember that our class made a revolution before, and WE WILL DO IT AGAIN.  The Bolsheviks showed us that if we truly commit ourselves to our class, and follow the plan, we can free our class from this misery.  The Bolsheviks were a tiny Party in 1905, and twelve years later, they led the working class of Russia to victory!"

We are on the cusp of a historical shift from liberal "democratic" capitalism to war and fascism throughout the world. The racist Zionist bombardment on Gaza and the war in Ukraine is symptomatic of the inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and its rivals, China and Russia.  The PLP is building an alternative movement for communist revolution and worker liberation. Join us.