Brooklyn, September 15—Communist politics featured prominently in the lead-up to a vigorous and multiracial march against racism, gentrification, and police violence. Organized by two neighborhood organizations, the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network and Equality for Flatbush, the march was guided by a wishful liberal slogan: “Brooklyn is not for sale.” But a more militant note was struck by one of the event’s featured speakers, a Black woman who lost her sister to police violence. After experiencing capitalist state terror in this horrific fashion, she has developed into an important leader in anti-racist struggles.   
When this leader was invited to speak at the pre-march rally, she shared the microphone with a member of Progressive Labor Party. As CHALLENGE found its way into the hands of dozens of passersby, our comrade reminded the crowd that Brooklyn will always be for sale as long as we live under a system driven by profit. The capitalist world degrades any chance for meaningful neighborhood integration with racist gentrification. But we can create a better world!
The Tuesday before the march was election day, and many marchers likely had voted for progressive challengers to local Democratic Party incumbents.  Their presence was a sign that the bosses’ charade of electoral “democracy” has not completely crowded out dedication to class struggle.  In coming weeks, as liberal misleaders head into overdrive to divert righteous anger against capitalism into voting against Trump-backed Republicans, our number-one job is to keep the flame of struggle alive
Don’t Vote; Revolt!
The organizers of today’s march are seeking to mobilize the masses on a multiracial basis against the rulers’ racist attacks. They are serious about Black leadership. They are careful not to feature elected leaders or candidates for office, and they work to attract workers who are frustrated by the raging inequalities of this system. Their endgame, however, is to kill any momentum they build for change at the dead end of the voting booth.
Our communist message, delivered by Black workers, drew nods of appreciation and agreement from many people there.  Over decades of political work in Flatbush, our multiracial comrades have maintained a focus on winning Black workers and youth to communism and PLP.  Patient base-building has been punctuated by moments of sharp anti-racist class struggle in the schools and on the streets.  
The cumulative effect of this history is that our politics and our newspaper are an expected and welcome part of the political life of the neighborhood.  At today’s march, 250 CHALLENGEs were distributed.  Our comrades fell a bit short, however, in bringing out our Party’s base. It would have been good for more of our friends to see us in action.
Even in the current period of rising fascism, where the attacks of capitalism are constant and mass movements are politically weak, opportunities for fightback are all around us. Each one is pregnant with potential to win more workers and youth to communism.  Dare to struggle, dare to win.

HAITI, Sept. 7—The last several weeks have seen mass demonstrations throughout Haiti and the Haitian diaspora (e.g., in Brooklyn, NY during the massive Labor Day Carnival) against massive corruption in the PetroCaribe program. Workers have denounced the local bosses and their politicians, demanding an account of reports that between 1.7 to 3.8 billion dollars was stolen by previous regimes from funds destined for the development of the country. The actions follow up mass uprising in early July (Challenge 7/25).
Through the PetroCaribe contract signed in 2006, Venezuela sells gasoline and diesel fuel to Haiti and other countries in the region; 60% of the cost of the oil is due within 90 days and the balance is to be paid over 25 years at 1 percent interest. As of 2016, Haiti owes Venezuela over $80 billion (Haïti Liberté, 1/2). The money saved is supposed to be used for development projects. In Haiti, that turned it was misused by the bosses politicians. Examples of this corruption include a 10-mile road that was only 6.5 miles and unfinished housing for workers, etc., while bankers and politicians lined their own pockets (Miami Herald, 8/23).
Hundreds protest Petrocaribe theft
But, in a small town here today, there was more than a simple demand for accountability as hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets under the leadership of Progresive Labor Party (PLP). What was on view was the class character of mass hatred of corrupt politicians.Messages on handwritten signs carried by marchers were clear: “The ruling class and their state and politicians are always reactionary and against the interests of the masses” and “theft of Petrocaribe funds part of bosses’ plan against the workers.”The slogans pointed the finger not only towards the particular thieves in the Petrocaribe scandal, but also to the real victims of the crime—workers and their children. Other, more threatening, messages called workers to class struggle: “It’s the masses who will judge the guilty!”
Mobilizing workers under red leadership
In order to transform this march into a mass demonstration, Party comrades went through the streets of the town, to the market and neighborhoods, explaining why the residents should participate — it is in their class interest to fight back against the bosses in an organized way under revolutionary communist leadership.
Friends of the Party did their part: an artist made a stencil to write our demands on walls and a young videographer made a short video to raise the class consciousness of the people. Others advertised the action on social media networks. All of this helped people understand the true nature of the theft from Petrocaribe—a direct attack on the working class. Through this struggle many individuals gained a greater awareness of the class nature of events that are shaping their lives.
At the beginning, we were just a few members and friends of the Party, but we were very motivated. Despite our weak numbers, we began chanting and started marching through town. As we marched down a single street, people began joining us: first the young, children and adolescents, then the adults joined us, all members of the working class. Pots and pans in hand, they animated the chants. One worker commented that “money in the pockets of the bosses comes from the misery in the stomachs of the workers!
”We crisscrossed the streets of our small town, stopping in front of the tax collection office and the courthouse, where we chanted our demands for justice against the criminals and for the demands of workers for a better life. One of our comrades called for the construction of a mass force to put an end, once and for all, to the reign of the capitalist class, their state and politicians.
The struggle to demand an accounting of the stolen Petrocaribe funds and punishment of the criminals is also a struggle against the corruption of the capitalist system. We in PLP are committed to developing class consciousness and class struggle here—and everywhere—enlarging the base of the Party and organizing the working class into a revolutionary force.
Our Party is becoming stronger as the struggle continues. Fight for communism! Power to the working class!

MEXICO, September 13—On September 3, a group of thugs on campus violently attacked students from CCH Azcapotzalco (a campus of the Autonomous University of Mexico—UNAM) in a cowardly and cunning manner.  The students and supporters from other UNAM campuses, were rallying in the courtyard of the campus rectory demanding: that more groups be allowed on campus, for improved security conditions, and the resignation of the president.The school president Enrique Graue admitted days later that he had witnessed the attack from the rectory’s tower, along with various other school authorities who were present.  No one did a thing while the students were attacked with rocks, sticks, pipes, Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and sharpened objects.  Two students were hospitalized with serious injuries and various others were wounded.  
University authorities have historically tolerated, and quietly organized and financed various groups of goons at UNAM.  They are part of the repressive measures used by UNAM officials against students, faculty, and workers who fight back.
Federal and local Mexico City officials have also protected and sheltered these groups.  A good example is Hector Carranza—nicknamed The Scorpion—who was identified as one of the attack leaders.  He got his start inside the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) and has recently been identified as a functionary of the PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party) government.
University and government officials have hypocritically distanced themselves from repression and from the campus hooligan groups, but they have all responded before and after the attack in an erratic and lukewarm manner.   Both groups have accused each other for the release of two of the students’ attackers, clearly showing their complicity in the attack and their protection of the violent groups that operate at UNAM.
Students and faculty from the majority of UNAM campuses responded to the September 3rd attack by staging a strike.  More than 30,000 marched on the main campus against the repression, supported by students from other institutions like Poli and ENAH.  
The students remain brave in the face of this terror and responded with solidarity and collectivity to the attack on their fellow schoolmates.  The groups behind the attack by these campus goons—with the objective of destabilizing the incoming nationalist capitalist Lopez Obrador government—underestimated the ability of the students to organize and fight against the repression and injustices of the capitalist system.
Unlike other periods of history when violent groups were used to slow down university protests, the current terror and violence is set-up as the main way to control groups that are rebelling against the system’s attacks.  Along with the legal methods used like the Internal Security Law, these attacks also represent methods used to control social protests nationwide.These attacks have not intimidated the college students.  They have also not frightened the thousands in communities that are resisting the interests of mining concerns, the students resisting school closures (one of the results of the murder of the student teachers from Ayotzinapa), nor the farmworkers of Atenco who still resist the building of the new Mexico City airport.
The communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) rejects the repression by these campus goons as a mark of the violent fascist attacks by the capitalists against the working class.  We call on all workers to show solidarity with the students.  Principally though, we must organize a party that doesn’t rely on electoral politics, but one that seeks to change this repressive capitalist system for an equal communist society. the answer to fascist repression is the organized struggle of the working class.

CHICAGO, September 13—A hotel workers’ strike here reached the seven-day mark today, with some 6,000 workers from over 20 major hotels represented in the struggle. Hundreds of these workers are actively participating on at least two dozen pickets.
Their contract with the bosses expired on August 30, and the demands of the strikers include year-round health benefits (workers have been made to go without when many are laid-off during the winter months) and higher wages. Comrades from Progressive Labor Party have joined in the picket, distributed CHALLENGE, supported chants, and talked with strikers.
Considering the make-up of the hotel workers in the industry, the working conditions created by the hotel bosses need to be seen for the sexist and racist attacks that they are. Many of the hotel workers are women and immigrant workers. Many face sexual harassment, assault, and other degrading conditions from their bosses and hotel clients alike. To see these same women workers pouring energy and leadership to the picket line and strike is an inspiring example of fightback against sexist capitalism.
Progressive Labor Party holds tight to the political line that strikes can be powerful schools for communism. When workers shut down the bosses’ industries, and drastically damage their ability to make profits off our labor, the working class learns a profound lesson about our class power and our capacity to create revolutionary change.
What is key to such revolutionary development, however, is revolutionary leadership and a mass international PLP. Our task is to continue to immerse ourselves deep within inspiring working-class struggles, such as this strike, wherever we are. In only this way, we can win more workers to the struggle of overthrowing bosses and capitalism all over the world and creating our own communist society that we collectively organize to meet our needs.