INDIANA, September 25—Putting our line of revolutionary communism on the line with fellow workers, no matter how big or small the fight, is the only way Progressive Labor Party can build for communism in this dark period of capitalism. PLP along with the family of workers murdered by kkkops and mass organization members, held a daylong rally for justice here. What started off as a potentially isolating action, turned into a school for communist leadership.
A previous article reported on the actions of PLP and families who lost loved ones via murders-by-cops (CHALLENGE, 9/11). PLP had also connected the dots of racism from deportations to police terror.  All of this has been happening among economic devastation, and political and educational disinvestment in the same working-class city.  
Workers embrace politics
Protesters gathered with their signs and photos of the murdered in front of a local baseball stadium along an intersection. Few passersby were around.  So, the crowd moved down the road to a high school where a reunion happened to be taking place.
Alumni were gathered in the high school parking lot. The school had been closed for 11 years. The busted out windows, graffiti, and disrepair of the school and surrounding neighborhood provided the visual reminder of why PLP builds in this community. A battle-tested comrade, who also lived and worked in this city years earlier, said this was where the Party needed to be.  When reunion organizers learned about the Party and why we were there, they gladly welcomed us into the event.
We talked to workers of all ages who told stories about the school and neighborhood. They were receptive to CHALLENGE and conversations about racist police and other conditions under capitalism. Some gave a donation for the paper and offered supportive words to people among us grieving, but still fighting.
Push the limits of what is possible
When we returned to the baseball stadium with signs, a bullhorn, and CHALLENGE, fans of the team were beginning to stream in for the game. Most of the crowd did not live in the city. Like many capitalist investments in working-class cities, the ballpark was not built to benefit residents.
The reception from this group was different from the workers at the school reunion. While many people did not take CHALLENGE, veteran PL members insisted on continuing to spread our ideas.  The security guard threatened us with removal and arrest. One veteran PL’er responded by calling attention to the despicable conditions of the city.
“They [workers] need our line here, they need CHALLENGE!” So, we continued to sell CHALLENGE and talk to workers with a little pushback.  This reinforced a valuable lesson about pushing the limits.
One of the biggest battles we’ll fight is the one against ourselves; the rest of the working class knows this system means murder and death for them. We know that it will take communist revolution led by our Party, with many other workers joining and fighting to defeat it!

NEW YORK CITY, September 7 – One hundred and fifty members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union brought the message of international working-class solidarity to the NYC Labor  Day Parade. Comrades from Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were active in the contingent, pushing the demonstration to the left by attacking the capitalist system.
The weakness of this march was its unquestioning acceptance of the Democrats and liberal bosses. President Trumps deportation machine was developed by the presidents before him, going back to the Clinton era. A workers’ movement that does not attack both political parties and bosses has no fighting chance to change the world.
Although the union remains weakened by the poisonous politics of liberalism and nationalism, PLP is making modest gains in winning more workers to a more anti-racist, internationalist, communist line. Slowly but surely, we are fighting to connect our local struggles to the wider movement for workers’ liberation, and call on our class to reject the bosses’ election traps and build the fight for revolution.
Bring an anti-racist, communist line to the masses
As the liberal misleaders organize these larger marches and work hard to water down any militant struggle, it’s essential to bring a sharper anti-racist message to win workers to a better line. The lead nationalist banner read, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!” and another read, “Solidarity Has No Borders, No Ban – No Wall!”
As our delegation marched up 5th Avenue, we stopped at Trump Tower and held a brief rally against the author of the racist Muslim ban inspired by Obama era policies, advocate of the anti-refugee atrocities at the U.S./Mexico border, and the current head of U.S. imperialism.
Two years ago, we held a similar action after the racist Nazi-riot in Charlottesville, Virginia where a deranged racist drove his car into a crowd of protestors. Recently, we also marched after the racist mass murder in El Paso, Texas by yet another emboldened racist killer, egged on directly from the White House.
Our small delegation stood out from the massive march that must have included well over 10,000 workers from almost every union in NYC (which has the highest union density in the U.S.). There were many U.S. flags, a few bagpipe marching bands and one contingent was led by two military Humvees with camouflage-uniformed National Guard members inside. Although PLP has been active in this union for many years, struggling with many workers around major aspects of our line, especially internationalism and anti-racism, we still are confronted with the bosses’ garbage ideas within the mass movement.
But by participating in many struggles, large and small, both against the bosses and the International UAW leadership, we have earned the confidence of our sisters and brothers and have been able to influence the larger union that represents around 14,000 workers in the NYC metropolitan area. Through this slow-moving difficult process, we have also established a small but regular readership for CHALLENGE.
Don’t vote–fight for communist revolution
For us, the main lesson is that we can do much better. The racist profit system has nothing to offer but growing wars, poverty, and terror. “Capitalism” has become a dirty word to millions of workers who are searching for answers, especially young workers. It’s essential to win these workers to the truth that the problems confronting our class did not start with Trump, nor will they end once he’s out of office. We need to expose the liberal wing of the ruling class as they try to win a new generation of workers to fight and die for the needs of U.S. imperialism. We need to explain that their rivalry with the bosses in China and Russia is leading us to a third world war.
With the 2020 elections already starting to consume the unions, we will have to fight harder and smarter to help workers avoid the trap of “lesser-evil” politics and choose the long road to communist revolution.

David Koch, one half of the toxic Charles/David Koch billionaire brothers, died on August 23. The Koch brothers have been leaders of the domestic small fascist bosses challenging the big fascists who have historically run U.S. imperialism.
These two wings of the ruling class are killers rushing towards a battle that will result in increasing fascism. Trusting either of them to liberate our class is a dead-end. Building confidence in our class by building a revolutionary communist movement to put the working class in power is the only way forward in the face of growing fascism.
Domestic oil vs. Mid-East oil
The Koch empire was built on oil refining, fracking, and petroleum products, mainly based on U.S. and Canadian oil and natural gas (Rolling Stone, 9/24/14). Koch Industries is one of the biggest family businesses in the world. However, even considering all of its extensive businesses beyond fossil fuels, it is still small compared to the big oil companies ExxonMobil, Shell and BP. The big oil companies, founded on the blood-soaked imperialist exploitation of Mid-East oil, are each two to four times the size of the entire Koch empire, and together dwarf Koch industries (Owler.com).
Wars over taxation and regulation
The Kochs and other small fascist bosses have banded together over the last 30 years to fight the big fascist bosses around two major issues: cutting corporate taxes that go towards supporting the big fascist bosses’ worldwide military empire, and stopping government regulations that press the big oil producers’advantages and hurt  the smaller companies.
When the Rockefellers and other big fascist U.S. bosses started the environmental movement (EElegal.org, 12/2016) to keep the domestic oil companies in check, the Koch brothers stood to take a massive hit.
“The effects of [environmental regulations] would be measured over decades for Koch. The company has billions of dollars sunk into the complex and expensive infrastructure of crude-oil processing. If a limit on greenhouse gas emissions were imposed…The total dollar losses would likely be measured in trillions over a period of 30 years or more”(NY Times, 8/23).
“No taxes and no regulations” became the battle cry of the Kochs. In the 1980s and 90s the big fascist liberal bosses were smashing unions, cutting benefits, eliminating job security and pushing racist lies to justify filling the prisons with Black workers.
The Kochs sought supporters for their movement in the army of workers who were being devastated by this drive of the main wing U.S. bosses. In the face of increasing competition from other rising imperialists, the liberal big fascists had to crush wage levels and smash the New Deal social contract that had staved off rebellion of U.S. workers during the 1930s.
Racism became the glue of the Koch movement
The main wing liberal bosses emerged from their victory in the Civil War as the most powerful ruling class in history by mobilizing millions to fight slavery. But it wasn’t long before the liberal bosses betrayed the working class.
The entire history of U.S. capitalism is built on the foundation of racism. From slavery to the racist terror of the KKK; from Jim Crow segregation to mass incarceration; from segregated schools to racist cops gunning down young Black men. Even the New Deal, hailed by liberals, mostly excluded Black workers (see book When Affirmative Action Was White). Within a few years of the defeat of the Southern ruling class and the end of chattel slavery, the big fascist liberal bosses let the KKK ravage Black workers in the South and allowed the defeated southern bosses to institute Jim Crow segregation.
The biggest liberal bosses at the helm of U.S. imperialism have made their billions and built their political power by building racism to exploit, divide and attack the working class. The liberal bosses’ racist ideas pollute our children’s schools, permeate the entertainment our class consumes and fuel the bosses’ organizations used to control us.
The Koch brothers used the racism cultivated through brutality by the liberal big fascists running U.S. capitalism against the liberal bosses themselves. At the heart of the Koch movements is open racism that paints Black and immigrant workers as the enemies of white workers. The Kochs didn’t create racism. They just recycled the same lies that the liberal big fascists used to justify “Stop and Frisk”, and to jail and terrorize millions of Black workers living in the cities controlled by the liberal big fascists.
The Koch brothers poured hundreds of millions of dollars into openly racist movement that gave life to the Tea Party (Rolling Stone, 9/24/14) and successive formations culminating most recently in Trump’s mobilizing of racist voters to win the White House (NY Times, 9/6/2018).
The liberal fascists are again asking for help from our class, and particularly from Black workers, this time to fight the Kochs and their small fascist partners. The liberal bosses’ mouth-piece, the NY Times, is running on all cylinders to build patriotism and unity with the liberal ruling class through articles like their 1619 Project on the role of slavery in building U.S. capitalism. The liberal big fascists are faking concern about racism because they need us to die in their battle for power. Like the scorpions they are, the liberal big fascist bosses will kill us once they have used us up, just as they have always done.
Racist hypocrisy of liberalism provides the fuel
Building openly racist movements has worked for the Koch brothers because of the profound and deep hypocrisy of the liberal big fascist bosses. As unions were smashed by the liberal bosses and rural industrial workers across the U.S. saw their wages slashed and jobs disappear, the Kochs directed workers’ anger at Black and immigrant workers as well as the wealthy liberals who have formed the backbone of the main wing bosses support in the major U.S. cities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The wealthy “liberal elite” of the United States’s biggest cities, who deride white workers as uneducated racists, while preserving  New York City as the most segregated school system in the U.S. and the most unequal city in the world, were an easy target for first the Tea Party and later the Trump movement to rally against. The hypocrisy of the Democratic Party claiming to be against racism and inequality while working day and night to keep the working class segregated and exploited in the financial and media centers of the U.S. let the Kochs, and the rest of the small bosses’ fascist movement, make the most open and vile racist lies attacking Black and immigrant workers.
Trump brought Koch movement into the White House
The election of Trump, with 62 million people voting for an open racist, signaled a new level of success for the domestic bosses and the Koch agenda. While the Koch brothers had a public spat with Trump, he has delivered on their agenda while trashing the main wing bosses’ institutions. “The Koch network has gotten 85 percent of what it has always wanted out of the Trump presidency so far — especially the huge government-starving, upward tilted tax cuts, the evisceration of the EPA...cuts in social spending, and ultra-right judges who will eviscerate government regulatory capacities and further weaken liberal forces” (NY Times 9/6/2018).
David Koch’s death will not lower the volatility. The threat posed by the Koch industry bosses and their fascist ilk poses a greater threat to the big fascist liberal bosses than ever before. The coming election in 2020 looks to be an extremely volatile event.
Look for the battle between the factions to sharpen as pressure from a rising China puts more strain on the liberal big fascist bosses to use more fascist methods and attempt to mobilize the working class on their behalf to regain control of their bloody racist empire. Going along with them is death for our class. We can never let the bosses lead us. We must make the fight against racism a fight to liberate our class from the system that breeds it: capitalism. We must build the PLP’s working class-led communist movement to fight for communist revolution!

David Koch, one half of the toxic Charles/David Koch billionaire brothers, died on August 23. The Koch brothers have been leaders of the domestic small fascist bosses challenging the big fascists who have historically run U.S. imperialism.
These two wings of the ruling class are killers rushing towards a battle that will result in increasing fascism. Trusting either of them to liberate our class is a dead-end. Building confidence in our class by building a revolutionary communist movement to put the working class in power is the only way forward in the face of growing fascism.
Domestic oil vs. Mid-East oil
The Koch empire was built on oil refining, fracking, and petroleum products, mainly based on U.S. and Canadian oil and natural gas (Rolling Stone, 9/24/14). Koch Industries is one of the biggest family businesses in the world. However, even considering all of its extensive businesses beyond fossil fuels, it is still small compared to the big oil companies ExxonMobil, Shell and BP. The big oil companies, founded on the blood-soaked imperialist exploitation of Mid-East oil, are each two to four times the size of the entire Koch empire, and together dwarf Koch industries (Owler.com).
Wars over taxation and regulation
The Kochs and other small fascist bosses have banded together over the last 30 years to fight the big fascist bosses around two major issues: cutting corporate taxes that go towards supporting the big fascist bosses’ worldwide military empire, and stopping government regulations that press the big oil producers’advantages and hurt  the smaller companies.
When the Rockefellers and other big fascist U.S. bosses started the environmental movement (EElegal.org, 12/2016) to keep the domestic oil companies in check, the Koch brothers stood to take a massive hit.
“The effects of [environmental regulations] would be measured over decades for Koch. The company has billions of dollars sunk into the complex and expensive infrastructure of crude-oil processing. If a limit on greenhouse gas emissions were imposed…The total dollar losses would likely be measured in trillions over a period of 30 years or more”(NY Times, 8/23).
“No taxes and no regulations” became the battle cry of the Kochs. In the 1980s and 90s the big fascist liberal bosses were smashing unions, cutting benefits, eliminating job security and pushing racist lies to justify filling the prisons with Black workers.
The Kochs sought supporters for their movement in the army of workers who were being devastated by this drive of the main wing U.S. bosses. In the face of increasing competition from other rising imperialists, the liberal big fascists had to crush wage levels and smash the New Deal social contract that had staved off rebellion of U.S. workers during the 1930s.
Racism became the glue of the Koch movement
The main wing liberal bosses emerged from their victory in the Civil War as the most powerful ruling class in history by mobilizing millions to fight slavery. But it wasn’t long before the liberal bosses betrayed the working class.
The entire history of U.S. capitalism is built on the foundation of racism. From slavery to the racist terror of the KKK; from Jim Crow segregation to mass incarceration; from segregated schools to racist cops gunning down young Black men. Even the New Deal, hailed by liberals, mostly excluded Black workers (see book When Affirmative Action Was White). Within a few years of the defeat of the Southern ruling class and the end of chattel slavery, the big fascist liberal bosses let the KKK ravage Black workers in the South and allowed the defeated southern bosses to institute Jim Crow segregation.
The biggest liberal bosses at the helm of U.S. imperialism have made their billions and built their political power by building racism to exploit, divide and attack the working class. The liberal bosses’ racist ideas pollute our children’s schools, permeate the entertainment our class consumes and fuel the bosses’ organizations used to control us.
The Koch brothers used the racism cultivated through brutality by the liberal big fascists running U.S. capitalism against the liberal bosses themselves. At the heart of the Koch movements is open racism that paints Black and immigrant workers as the enemies of white workers. The Kochs didn’t create racism. They just recycled the same lies that the liberal big fascists used to justify “Stop and Frisk”, and to jail and terrorize millions of Black workers living in the cities controlled by the liberal big fascists.
The Koch brothers poured hundreds of millions of dollars into openly racist movement that gave life to the Tea Party (Rolling Stone, 9/24/14) and successive formations culminating most recently in Trump’s mobilizing of racist voters to win the White House (NY Times, 9/6/2018).
The liberal fascists are again asking for help from our class, and particularly from Black workers, this time to fight the Kochs and their small fascist partners. The liberal bosses’ mouth-piece, the NY Times, is running on all cylinders to build patriotism and unity with the liberal ruling class through articles like their 1619 Project on the role of slavery in building U.S. capitalism. The liberal big fascists are faking concern about racism because they need us to die in their battle for power. Like the scorpions they are, the liberal big fascist bosses will kill us once they have used us up, just as they have always done.
Racist hypocrisy of liberalism provides the fuel
Building openly racist movements has worked for the Koch brothers because of the profound and deep hypocrisy of the liberal big fascist bosses. As unions were smashed by the liberal bosses and rural industrial workers across the U.S. saw their wages slashed and jobs disappear, the Kochs directed workers’ anger at Black and immigrant workers as well as the wealthy liberals who have formed the backbone of the main wing bosses support in the major U.S. cities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The wealthy “liberal elite” of the United States’s biggest cities, who deride white workers as uneducated racists, while preserving  New York City as the most segregated school system in the U.S. and the most unequal city in the world, were an easy target for first the Tea Party and later the Trump movement to rally against. The hypocrisy of the Democratic Party claiming to be against racism and inequality while working day and night to keep the working class segregated and exploited in the financial and media centers of the U.S. let the Kochs, and the rest of the small bosses’ fascist movement, make the most open and vile racist lies attacking Black and immigrant workers.
Trump brought Koch movement into the White House
The election of Trump, with 62 million people voting for an open racist, signaled a new level of success for the domestic bosses and the Koch agenda. While the Koch brothers had a public spat with Trump, he has delivered on their agenda while trashing the main wing bosses’ institutions. “The Koch network has gotten 85 percent of what it has always wanted out of the Trump presidency so far — especially the huge government-starving, upward tilted tax cuts, the evisceration of the EPA...cuts in social spending, and ultra-right judges who will eviscerate government regulatory capacities and further weaken liberal forces” (NY Times 9/6/2018).
David Koch’s death will not lower the volatility. The threat posed by the Koch industry bosses and their fascist ilk poses a greater threat to the big fascist liberal bosses than ever before. The coming election in 2020 looks to be an extremely volatile event.
Look for the battle between the factions to sharpen as pressure from a rising China puts more strain on the liberal big fascist bosses to use more fascist methods and attempt to mobilize the working class on their behalf to regain control of their bloody racist empire. Going along with them is death for our class. We can never let the bosses lead us. We must make the fight against racism a fight to liberate our class from the system that breeds it: capitalism. We must build the PLP’s working class-led communist movement to fight for communist revolution!