FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA, March 6—Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU 689) workers celebrated improvements in wages and benefits after a solid 15-day strike against Transdev, the contractor providing bus service to county residents. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members joined the 650+ workers at rallies and on picket lines. We brought the message that communism is the long-term solution to our needs for a decent standard of living globally for all workers, an end to the bosses’ wars, and a solution to the climate crisis. The bosses won’t help with any of those things!

The new contract is still deficient in pensions and other benefits, but it approached parity with the much larger WMATA transit contract that covers the rail system and most of the bus system. Transdev was forced to make such concessions since almost no worker scabbed on the strike (CHALLENGE, 3/13).

The successful strike struck a blow against racism. Virtually all of the bus drivers are Black, mostly immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. Transdev has relied on the old colonial approach of super-exploiting such workers, but had no choice but to back off in light of their militancy and solidarity. But until we succeed in building a revolutionary movement to topple the profit-hungry capitalist system, we will be faced with constant efforts by capitalists to use racism to push back and reduce the standard of living of all workers so they can line their pockets at our expense.

Intensified struggle looming

A series of relatively small transit strikes over the past months in Washington, DC and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs has set the tone for the “main event” – the coming expiration of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA’s) contract with over 9,000 transit workers on June 30. These Metro workers have increasingly come to realize that only antiracist class struggle has any chance of defending and advancing our interests. Workers are increasingly “strike ready!”

But WMATA is facing an operating deficit of $450 million – they will try to take this out of the hide of the working class, both those employed by Metro and those dependent on its service. Recent public hearings have shown Metro’s intent to cut workers back everywhere to solve its deficit crisis. Now is the time for workers to join the PLP to develop a collective strategy for fighting this looming battle while gaining ever greater understanding of the impossibility of capitalism to meet our needs. Trust no politician, turn to the multiracial working class for solidarity and a revolutionary communist future!

NEWTON, MASS, February 2, 2024—“When we fight, we win!” was the bold chant from the 2000-member Newton Teachers Association as they won their heroic 11-day “illegal” strike. Ninety-eight percent of the teachers picketed every day. Demands were for more social workers and behavioral therapists (needed for many students!), pay increases and work-rule changes. An excellent strike demand was for bigger pay raises for the lowest-paid staff, more of whom are Black and immigrants. It helped create unity among the various staff units. Under a communist system, we would abolish all inequality: we’d abolish money, and the working class would decide on the distribution of goods based on need.

It was the longest teachers' strike this century in Massachusetts. As in any struggle for reforms, the battle for better schools that would educate all youth will continue after the strike. Politically, we also need to be sharper as communists in exposing the role of capitalist schools in maintaining class inequality and promoting fascism and U.S. imperialism. Self-critically, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  played only a minor role in the strike, picketing and distributing over 150 leaflets to teachers and parent supporters. But we did make some new friends and introduced them to PLP’s ideas and literature.

The mayor and school committee controlling Newton schools claimed: “There's no money”. Yet, the affluent City of Newton had $55 million in surplus funds (for a “rainy day”) -- a parent said “It’s raining!” Newton schools have been under-funded for years with many Newton teachers not earning enough to buy a home in Newton or, in many cases, to rent here. Two Newton educators sell blood plasma or turn off heat to make ends meet. Even the raises won by the strikers won’t cover the increased cost of healthcare. 

All of the Newton city politicians serve the capitalist class, not students, workers, or educators. The strike stopped the city from busting the teachers union. It also showed how professionals’ living standards in the U.S. are being driven down—as Karl Marx predicted, the professionals are being proletarianized.

The courts work for the capitalist class

Communists always point out the role of the State (the capitalist government) in strikes. Massachusetts is one of 37 states with laws against teachers’ strikes. The courts first ordered an injunction against the strike and then fined the teachers' union almost  one million dollars during this strike, an extraordinary amount. Injunctions like this are part of developing fascism today as the crises of capitalism generate increasingly sharper attacks against workers in general. The Newton mayor published lies every day in her emails to the residents. The corporate media published their own fascist, blame-the-teacher lies. For example, a Boston Globe (2/5/2024) article gave space to a single anti-union businessman who attacked the teachers. Many parents and students actively supported the strike as did many other unions and individuals.

PLP attacked war, fascism, and the underfunding of education

Our leaflet pointed out how the U.S. Federal budget has roughly $1,000 billion for war and only $81 billion for education. The extra money Biden wants to give to Ukraine and Israel right now is equal to the total yearly federal education budget. Why, in the affluent suburb of Newton, does the city choose to under-fund the schools? Why, in this richest of all countries, isn't there enough money for schools, healthcare, food, or decent housing for all? The problem is the crisis of the worldwide capitalist system, with wars from Ukraine to Gaza killing hundreds of thousands. Competition among capitalists continues to intensify. Historically, capitalism in crisis did lead to fascism and war.

Today we see U.S. capitalists and their politicians, including liberals such as the Democrats, acting increasingly fascist ways.

We called for a Worker-Teacher-Parent-Student Alliance against sexism, racism, wage cuts, and imperialist war– against capitalism. We need a massive fightback, not just to win strikes, but to end the entire profit system. We need an egalitarian society. We need to support all working people internationally. We need a new political and economic system. Not the fake "communism" of today's China under Xi Jinping, but real communism: an end to the profit system and its inequities and exploitation.

Kevin Bayuk, a leading organizer and a generous, selfless mentor to younger members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP), died on March 3 in Calvary Hospice in Brooklyn after a long battle with malignant lymphoma. In the days before his death, Kevin was still visiting with friends and comrades and listening to Paul Robeson. He was a courageous and militant fighter who believed that the Party had to be a fighting organization to seize the moment. He would say that the three most important things in his life were family, friends, and communism.
Kevin was the youngest of four children born to working-class parents in the Bronx. He was an excellent swimmer his entire life and competed in citywide high school tournaments. Kevin was attending Colgate University when his sister Mary, a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital, became a Party member. Mary and her husband recruited Kevin to the Party. 

Kevin went on to Simmons College in Boston, where he graduated with a degree in social work. He then worked at a mental hospital, and was an active union organizer there and at his subsequent jobs. Wherever he worked, Kevin built a strong political base and brought colleagues and clients around the Party. 

Kevin made friends easily. His loyalty to the Party was matched only by his loyalty to his friends. He was nonjudgmental in his friendships, many of which lasted for decades. This same long-term outlook enriched Kevin’s base-building.

Bold antiracism in Boston

In the early 1970s, PLP in Boston was composed mainly of white middle-class college students who were attracted by the Party’s bold and militant anti-imperialism against the war in Vietnam. In the same period, a violent, racist, anti-busing organization, Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) arose in Boston. The Boston PLP leadership was frightened and intimidated by these racist South Boston thugs and refused to engage in militant struggle against them. When pushed to do so by the central PLP leadership, they split from the Party, taking almost all of the student members with them. But Kevin and a few other mostly working-class and Black comrades remained loyal to the Party. 

In September 1974, the Boston school year began under a U.S. federal court ruling to integrate the city’s public schools. The ensuing opposition by racist white parents was every bit as violent as any seen in the U.S. South. Kevin and a few other Party members bravely stood up to the thousands of racists outside South Boston High School. They called for Black and white working-class unity in the fight for better schools and working conditions.

For the following May Day, in 1975, PLP’s national leadership organized a march in South Boston, the heart of the racists’ home turf. With thousands of Party members and supporters in the International Committee Against Racism converging on Boston, the Party organized a contingent of fighters to protect the march. When the racists prepared to launch their attack against the marchers, Kevin and his fellow fighters charged up a hill and caught them by surprise. The ROAR thugs were forced to retreat. While some PLP fighters were injured, the march was protected and proceeded without further incident.

That summer, the Party held a summer project in Boston. Although the Boston Party was still small, Kevin and the other remaining members provided an important nucleus of organizers for more than two hundred volunteers who came from around the country to participate. After a group of Black bible salesmen were savagely assaulted by racists at segregated Carson Beach, PLP and the Committee Against Racism were the first to call for a demonstration. During the violence that ensued at the march, Kevin played a leading role in protecting several comrades.

A compassionate caregiver

Kevin eventually moved to New York and became one of the first physician assistants, a pioneer in the healthcare wilderness. He was a compassionate caregiver who worked at the Morris Heights Community Health Center for thirty years and touched thousands of lives. He took his medical van to homeless shelters and to the boardwalk at Coney Island, where he would crawl underneath to coax homeless people to get medical attention.

In Kevin’s later years in the Party, he concentrated on building a base and mentoring younger comrades, working closely with a college club in the Bronx.

Kevin continued to swim regularly throughout his life and competed in senior swim races. He also included his family in his other favorite activity—fishing. A devoted parent, he took his children, nephews, and eventually his grandchildren on regular fishing trips and developed deep ties with younger family members.

Kevin’s internationalism

In 2011, Kevin went with his partner to Haiti, where the Party conducted a freedom school and a health clinic. He later returned to Haiti for the Party’s work with union members, and to meet with striking workers at a local hospital. As always, he infused his base-building with calls for action.

Kevin also went to Puerto Rico with the Party, where he was instrumental in organizing the PLP contingent after Hurricane Maria's devastation. There he continued his committed base-building and demonstrated by his words and deeds that the Party was an organization of action and participation in the mass struggles of the international working class.

He established ties with  organization led by a veteran communist fighter and close friend. With rare consistency and dedication, Kevin demonstrated what it means to build a mass communist party.

A fighter all his life

After Kevin was found to have two cancers, he continued meeting with his club and mentoring and nurturing the younger members. He always emphasized the importance of developing lasting friendships and base-building. He urged the younger members to have confidence in the working class. He taught them the importance of distributingCHALLENGE. He never wavered or compromised in advocating the fight for communism.

As one of his closest friends said, “Kevin exemplifies what a revolutionary and communist is and should be. If we want to pay tribute to Kevin, the best way to do so is by recognizing his courageous commitment to communism. We should emulate his fight for communism and continue fighting against all types of racism and exploitation. He was a noble, just, humble, and brave human being as well as a dedicated comrade.” Kevin, the friend said, was best described by this verse by Bertolt Brecht:

There are men who fight one day and are good.
Others fight for a year and are better. 
Some fight for many years and are very good. 
But some fight all their lives; those are the essential ones.

On the eve of International Women’s Day (IWD) our comrades and friends played a revolutionary role to bring poor working-class women to the celebrations all over the country. Rich feminist, liberal and progressive women activists organized processions in big cities while playing our active role there.  We concentrated to bring more and more women to celebrate the IWD in the areas which were devastated in floods. 
As communists in Progressive Labor Party (PLP), we are striving to eliminate every form of exploitation like inequality, gender-based violence, religious hatred and injustice. Organizing women workers hit hardest by the system, and bringing them to the celebrations was a positive step forward in that direction.

From Afghanistan to Pakistan working class women need communism classless society where their safety, dignity and prosperity are guaranteed not bankrupt liberal feminism. They need a society based on equality, justice and freedom. They desperately need shelter, free education and free healthcare facilities. We cannot expect change in our society without organizing working-class women in the movement for an international communist revolution under the banner of PLP. 

 PL’ers celebrate leadership of women workers under attack

In rallies, organized in different cities to celebrate IWD, our comrades explained that in a country where poverty is about sixty percent, inflation is about 32 percent, unemployment is almost 10 percent, fascism is on rise and fundamentalist are getting more space how can we imagine that poor working-class women or even men can attend conferences and celebrations held in five-star hotels. 
In Pakistan and all over the world feminism is a bout capitalism and women bosses. That’s why feminists take up the issues which are related to ruling class women they talk about women rights but never utter a single sentence against the capitalist system which is exploiting poor women vigorously. 

When our comrades asked them to celebrate the IWD by singing and dancing they started to cry and scream while saying that “we are still living without proper shelters, medicines, food and clothing. How can we sing a song or dance with joy?” Our comrades gave them courage by giving some examples of optimism from the history of the poor working class and explained that it is the capitalist system which sucks our blood to survive. Bosses will never bring ease in our lives because they need more and more exploitation of the poor to become richer. We come to know that bosses have looted what was sent by different international charity organizations for the displaced population which shows that bosses will keep us deprived of every right until we fight back and get our rights.

We also helped brighten the mood with revolutionary poetry, songs and cultural dances in appreciation of the women in the class struggle for a communist revolution and  revolutionary change.

Pakistan is a country with 49.2 percent of women of the total population of 241 million but most of them have no right to give their opinion in family matters or even go to market without permission of their elders. They live like slaves and are treated brutally. They do hard work at home, in the fields or at the workplace from dawn to dusk without recognition of their labor. They always have been facing cruelty of their husbands, fathers or brothers at home and harassment at schools, markets or wherever they work. Poor working class women are humiliated and tortured by the landlords and supervisors at work.

Sexism, racism, and oppression—all fruits from the rotten capitalist tree

Domestic workers like women and young housemaids are more vulnerable, almost every day we hear the terrible stories of domestic workers about how they have been sexually, physically, psychologically and verbally abused. Housemaids are easy target of brutal attitude of the people they are working for.

According to a recent report girls aged ten to fourteen; one in every four homes is being abused sexually or physically. Same happened with the girls from Christian and Hindu community more easily. Most of the victims are kept silent by threatening them that if they try to expose savagery, they are facing their parents being killed.

During the celebrations PL’ers and our working class sisters had many lively political discussions. A PL’er  explained that we are living in a country where the gender gap is increasing day by day. According to the Davos index, we are standing at 142 out of 146. It is our duty to spread class consciousness among the working-class women to fight against exploitation, poverty and illiteracy. We condemned the gender-based wage disparities at the workplaces and emphasized that women are suffering because of the rotten capitalist economic policies of the bosses so we need to build a strong movement against all these capitalist policies and we are striving for. Women workers and PL’ers discussed important demands we are fighting for such as:

•Rejecting the proposed amendments in the constitutions attacking transgendered workers. 

•Demanding provision of shelter, food and healthcare facilities to the displaced workers  still living in horrible conditions

•The recognition of unpaid women’s labor in the home.  

Only communism can liberate women workers

However a PL’er  reiterated that reform cannot bring change in the society except to give some relief to the working class people and we know that bosses can go for the reform which can help them to sustain their bloody capitalist system but they will not allow making a communist revolution because communist revolution will end their exploitative system. They ended by saying that if we want to get rid of exploitation, gender based inequality, fascism and fundamentalism we must build a revolutionary international communist party.

PLP is the only hope for the working class people to establish a society based on “from each according to his/her abilities to each according to need”. We are building an international revolutionary communist PLP to get rid of all the miseries working class people are facing all over the world. PLP salutes the fightback and leadership of women workers for a bright revolutionary future of communism in this dark night era all over the world.