In Iran, as tension increases between U.S. and Iranian capitalists making World War III a growing possibility, the working class is experiencing severe ruin. The devastation from the Iran-Iraq earthquake was the deadliest in a decade.
Devastation of Workers in Iran
It mainly affected Iran—killed over 500, injured 7,460, and left countless homeless, traumatized, and in dire conditions. It also hit seven big cities and 1,950 villages in the Kermanshah province. Officials said 12,000 houses had been completely destroyed and a further 15,000 damaged (The Guardian, 11/14). Over 70,000 need emergency shelters.
The earthquake and the government’s actions have affectively increased poverty and suffering of the working class. Communism will prevent the social devastation of earthquakes by putting the lives of the workers first.
Instead of using its resources to support employment, equity, and to sufficiently fund 70,000 working class families in need of emergency shelters after the earthquake, the Iranian ruling class spent billions of dollars on its ballistic missile programs and other military and intelligence projects (NYT, 8/13). Other funds are being used to support the Assad regime in Syria. The Iranian government wants to protect their investments in Syrian oil. The ruling classes are always concerned about their profit margins and their ability to stay in power. The needs of the working class mean nothing to them.
Mass Disaster Preventable
The country lies on dozens of fault lines. The 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake killed in northern Iran killed 35,000 to 50,000 people. The 2003 Bam earthquake in the southern Kerman province killed at least 31,000. In 2012, a double earthquake killed 300.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president from 2005 to 2013, initiated a program to build low-income housing in regions that had long history of earthquakes. Housing was knowingly created along the fault lines.
Similar to the lies told by the ruling class in the U.S after Hurricane Katrina (which killed over 1800 working-class families) the rulers’ mouthpieces in Iran said, “nothing could have been done”(NY Times, 11/13). PLP knows, from our study of what the Bolsheviks achieved, that a better world is possible! It is possible to protect the lives of the working class.
After the earthquake, many people blasted the government on social media for failing to provide resources in a timely manner. “Iranians from across the country pitched in to gather water, food and tents and transported the aid with their own cars to the disaster zone” (NY Times, 11/26).
Iran-U.S. Tension
The rivalry between the U.S. and Iran to see whose ruling class will dominate the energy-rich Middle East has already killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and threatens to be much bloodier in the future. Imperialist wars benefit the ruling classes of the rivals, because they are the ones who profit from control over trillions of dollars of raw materials, markets, labor and investments. But the price of these deadly wars are paid for by workers, as they are used as cannon fodder and as massive military spending crowds out spending on vital social programs.
U.S. government complaints about the Iranian theocracy are pure hypocrisy. The U.S. has sold hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Saudi ruling family. Its criticism of Iran’s involvements in Syria and Lebanon is also hypocritical given the U.S. record of occupations and support for dictatorial regimes in the region, including Iran itself. (The CIA worked to overthrow the secular leader Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953 who sought to nationalize oil, the U.S. armed the torture regime of the Shah of Iran, and is currently funding terrorist groups in Iran.)
Problem with Nationalism
Iran is preparing to confront the “threats, malicious, hegemonic and divisive activities of America in the region” (NYT, 8/13). The bosses use nationalism and patriotism to pit workers against workers in order to build profit-driven wars. There are reports of rising mass national unity against U.S. president Trump and Saudi Arabia, signaling more tension. However, capitalist-caused devastations such as the earthquakes in Iran that increased poverty and homelessness, and recent tax bill in the U.S that indubitably affects the poor, make it difficult for them to do so. Be it Iran, Saudi Arabia or U.S., the working class suffers, either through death due to war, death due to environmental cuts that increase “natural disasters” or death due to cuts to healthcare and other social services.
Under communism, workers’ needs will always be primary, because we won’t have a need for profit. Even as the 70,000 workers in Iran remain homeless the international working class is constantly reminded what’s important to the ruling classes everywhere. Our fight is more important than ever. Are you ready to fight for a better world? Workers of the world unite!

MEXICO

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, members of Progressive Labor Party held an international communist school over this past long weekend. On the first day, a large group of education workers studied political economy. Everyone was very receptive to our communist ideas, advancing their understanding that they are part of the working class and that the purpose of education under capitalism is to prepare new generations of exploited workers, and that educators play a role in that. For the working class to win a world free of exploitation—communism—educators have a different important role to play, teaching young people to resist the capitalist ideas of individualism, racism, and sexism, and turning them into ideas of collectivity and struggle.
We talked about how the problems these educators face in their communities, unions, and classrooms are related to capitalism’s need for profit, fascism, and war. Cutbacks in funding, stronger control of education, and fascist tactics against workers and to reign in members of the capitalist class are some of the bosses’ tools to get prepared for wider war. The education workers recognized that capitalism permanently attacks the living conditions of the working class and that their struggle has been key to fight these attacks. We asked them to read CHALLENGE, and other PLP literature, to join our study groups, and to fight the capitalist system that exploits us and replace it with a communist society.
Next, we met with a group of industrial workers, where young PLers gave a presentation explaining what communism is and what a communist society would be like. The discussion was very spirited, with discussion on such ideas as how products would be distributed and what education would be like. There was input on the necessity of developing communist leaders  within the working class.
The third day we went to a community were workers are fighting against excessive prices on electric energy. When comrades mentioned the need for communism, everyone showed their anger at the capitalist system and talked about all the attacks their community has suffered for years. They showed interest in fighting against the government and the criminal capitalist system. Some asked about the difference between socialism and communism, and if Cuba is communist. We explained many key aspects of our line and the necessity of creating an international party and fighting directly for communism—the lack of both were serious weaknesses of past revolutions. These workers showed interest in joining study groups in the area and we are working on it.
The weekend-long school for communism showed the great potential of the working class to understand and practice communist ideas and of PLP in developing working-class leaders capable of leading the struggle to end the capitalist system and build a new communist society. This was a very good way of honoring the Russian communists. Despite the dark night, a spectre is haunting the capitalist world: the spectre of communism!

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OAKLAND

Over 50 comrades and friends celebrated the Bolshevik revolution with a dynamic dinner. Friends who attended said the event inspired hope for the future. We raised funds for our brave comrades who fought the Klan in Anaheim. It was a success!
To kick off the event, a comrade gave a speech about the problems in the world, from deadly climate change to racist police killings to sexist harassment and violence in our jobs, schools, and homes. He explained why capitalism is to blame, and showed that the Bolsheviks understood this. He explained the Bolsheviks encourage us, not because they fought back. As long as there is class society, there are brave fighters who struggle for class liberation. The Bolsheviks encourages us because they took the next step, and actually took state power. Because of this, they were able to take society light years into the future.
After the speech, people discussed at their tables what they have heard about communism, whether they think we can fix capitalism, and other interesting questions. Some comrades made the point that the Bolsheviks didn’t fail. In fact, they were able to transform life for millions of workers, bringing them anti-racism and anti-sexism. Rather, we need to learn from their mistakes of why they were unable to maintain a socialist society and become communist.
A Multimedia Spread
Someone performed a rap against identity politics. It was about being a worker above all else, not a man or woman or Black or white person. Another woman performed a song about Hurricane Katrina and the racist treatment of the working class of New Orleans.
A video about the 2014 Ferguson rebellion demonstrated how the working class is still fighting back today. We discussed the successes and failures of the Ferguson rebellion and why we need working-class consciousness.
Every table received a collection of pictures from the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and Vietnam. The pictures showed different ways the pro-worker governments promoted antiracism, anti-sexism, built infrastructure for workers, and used art and propaganda to change the culture of society. Each picture had information on the back to explain different facts about each country, and people shared out what their picture was about. People learned about history in a hands-on way.
A Party for Youth and Golden Agers
The event closed with a speech from a new comrade about the need to build the Party and fight for communism. Overall, participants loved the dinner. People commented that they never felt bored throughout the night. People loved how dynamic the material was and thought we did a good job at breaking the mold for how education must work. One person commented on how multigenerational the crowd was, because they heard that “communism is just for young people” and that “real adults know that communism can never work.” She said she was inspired “to see people who have truly dedicated their lives to the movement.”
The event made people feel like they could learn about history and working-class struggles. Many commented that they want to get more involved in the Party. The young leaders, especially women who organized the event, felt empowered and humbled. May this event give us momentum to continue in the class struggle and building the Party in the Bay Area.

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CHICAGO

Celebrating the Bolshevik Revolution inspires us to keep fighting for the communist world we know is possible and necessary. Chicago’s recent multi-racial, multi-generational event of over 50 people included drama, table conversations, songs, and great food. The event highlighted the hard work and persistence involved in mobilizing and politicizing for the Bolshevik Revolution.
One hundred years ago, workers overthrew the Provisional Government and announced that from now on, the profit system would not control the lives of workers and peasants.
Today, we are still fighting for that world. In the meantime, we have learned that the fight for an egalitarian society is more complex than workers and communists thought at the time. The capitalists have learned as well and have created new ways to exploit, ideologically disarm, imprison, and kill members of the working class.
Antiracist Reenactment
In this age of instant information, we are deluged with how the bosses want us to think. It was refreshing at the Chicago celebration to see a dramatic re-enactment of a little-known chapter in U.S. history from the 1920s, a time when workers, white as well as Black, took up arms against the Ku Klux Klan. The organization was called the Knights of the Flaming Circle, and they fought fire with fire.
Immigrant communities, particularly Italians, Catholics, were also part of it, since the Klan was both anti-Black and anti-immigrant.  In Ohio, the Klan’s cars were overturned and the racists were beaten with bricks, bottles, and clubs. The school board elections were an area of struggle between the antiracists and Klan in New Mexico. These workers had good ideas, but without a goal of eliminating the whole capitalist system, they were a temporary force.
Learning from the Giants
PLP’s analysis of the accomplishments and mistakes growing out of the October revolution is presented in Road to Revolution IV (see plp.org). Socialism, as it turns out, is not a stage on the way to communism. Instead, it leads back to capitalism. By making material incentives, rather than social incentives, the basis of work, the Soviet Union developed capitalist ideas and practices that undermined the goals of their revolution. We learned from the pioneers’ mistakes (see page 8 about the Soviet’s New Economic Plan).  
For some, it may be a sad fact of history that the Bolshevik Revolution did not live up to its potential to wipe capitalism off the face of the earth forever. The reality is that change is doesn’t happen in a straight line. Today, as the world’s workers are beset with wars and fascist governments, what we have learned from that first attempt to bring about communism on a mass scale makes it more likely that the next attempt will be successful.
Today’s potential communists are often embroiled in reform movements. One day, they will develop the forces to overthrow the government, as the Bolsheviks did. Progressive Labor Party is bucking that trend by keeping communism alive and winning more potential fighters every day.

When U.S. President Donald Trump descended upon Asia in a twelve-day tour spanning five countries, it marked a turning point for the ascendance of China, the relative decline of the U.S., and their sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry. While Trump declared that “America is back” (The Guardian, 11/17), it was more wishful thinking than reality.
Trump’s attempts to appease his alienated working-class base with a hard line on trade and North Korea ring hollow. China’s growing economic, military, and political might are propelling it forward, while the U.S. desperately tries to hold on to its once-dominant position. As history has taught us, most recently in World Wars I and II, the top dog imperialist will never relinquish its power willingly. The tension between China and the U.S. will continue to intensify amid rising fascism in both nations. The inevitable outcome will be world war.  
Workers everywhere must reject all forms of racism and nationalism used by Trump and other capitalist rulers to divide our class and mobilize us to fight and die in the bosses’ wars for control of resources and markets. Workers have just one international class interest: to smash the profit system everywhere. Exploitation on the job, decaying infrastructure, capitalist death care and miseducation, and the rotten culture that oppresses us all stem from this system. Only communism will abolish nations, wages, money, and profits.
U.S. Grows Pathetic, Rising China Forebodes War
The China/U.S. power struggle was on full display during Trump’s trip. While the U.S.-led Asian Pacific Economic Summit was unfolding in Vietnam, the Chinese were countering at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta. The Filipino press praised Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who “got things done [at ASEAN] in areas that matter: trade and security above all. He strengthened economic ties with the region while practically silencing protests over China’s militarization of the South China Sea” (The Rappler, 11/16).
The Los Angeles Times (11/9) bemoaned the fact that “[n]owhere in Trump’s tour, however, have any of those leaders entered into serious negotiations or made significant concessions.”  Some of China’s minor trade concessions, for which Trump was quick to claim credit, were already in the pipeline. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, an important ruling class figure, admitted that the concessions “achieved thus far are pretty small.” Of the roughly 15 “deals” announced by Trump, most are nonbinding memoranda of understanding that may never materialize (The Japan Times, 11/10).
TPP Failure a Sign of U.S. Decline
As the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations went forward without Trump, his absence had little real effect. Shortly after Trump left Japan, the country’s finance minister made clear that there would be no trade deal with the U.S. (Reuters 11/6/17). With Japan at the helm, the trade ministers forming the TPP-11, the trade pact’s remaining signatories, announced that the agreement would be revised to proceed without the U.S. (L.A. Times, 11/9). This will force Trump to play a weak hand when trying to negotiate trade concessions that could have been obtained through the TPP (Huffington Post, 11/7).
The main wing of the U.S. ruling class is furious with Trump’s “disengagement” from trade deals like the TPP, which had the full support of Barack Obama, a more reliable bosses’ agent. In the British Daily Mail (11/14), Nicholas Lardy, a Peterson Institute expert on the Chinese economy, blasted Trump’s pull-back:
[The Chinese] are gaining strategic importance and geopolitical influence in the region    ... [Trump] can talk about Indo-Pacific blah, blah, blah, but we’re not engaged in trade, we’re not negotiating any new trade agreement with any country in the region.
A weakening and volatile U.S. equates to a slippery slope to war with China.
China’s Bosses: Unity & Fascism
Compare ruling class sniping at Trump to this assessment of the Chinese bosses’ unity coming out of the so-called Chinese Communist Party Congress one month ago:
The supersizing of Xi’s power comes as Beijing steps up efforts to go global ... Xi doesn’t tweet, boast about his IQ or make geopolitical threats he’s not prepared to back up. What he does do is beat economic growth expectations year after year, steadily increase China’s market share and play the long game ... (Japan Times, 10/31).
Xi Jinping, who easily won a second term as general secretary of the Chinese “Communist Party”, pledged that he would make China a great power by 2050 (South China Morning Post, 11/16). In fact, it may happen sooner, with China already “the second largest economy by official exchange rate, the largest manufacturing country and the largest trading nation in the world.” It also has one-third of the world’s billionaires (BBC, 10/19 and Center for American Progress, 4/27).
Speaking at a “China Power Conference” organized by the ruling class think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the senior Republican Senator John Cornyn worried that China will “pose the greatest threat to the U.S.,” sooner rather than later. His two main concerns are China’s state capitalist economy outpacing the U.S., and the aggressive Chinese military buildup in the South and East China Seas (Epoch Times 11/14).
Tumultous U.S. Ruling Class
Meanwhile, the U.S. ruling class is splintering by the day. Republicans could not garner enough votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and are struggling with passage of their shortsighted tax reform bill, which favors selfish interests of the wealthy at the expense of a growing deficit and widening inequality (NY Times, 11/16). Steve Bannon, the white supremacist loose cannon and former White House advisor, faced off against Vice President Mike Pence, with each backing different candidates in a much-publicized Republican Senate primary race in Alabama (CNN, 9/25).
The Trump- and Koch-led factions of the ruling class continue to vacillate over their relationship. Conservative billionaires are fighting Trump over infrastructure programs, border taxes, jobs programs, and the ban on refugees and immigrants from mainly Muslim countries (Independent, 2/3). The Koch brothers at first backed the Trump tax plan, only to later withdraw their support (Vanity Fair, 11/3).
Conversely, the first term of Xi’s rule was defined by a harsh disciplining of China’s ruling class, with power threats to Xi drummed out of leadership or imprisoned. This approach seems to be paying both financial and political dividends.
Turn World War Into Revolution
At the end, Trump’s Asia trip served only to highlight the growing challenge of Chinese imperialism to U.S. imperialist power. All the signs suggest that the current battle between the U.S. and China is leading to a catastrophic conflict. We can be certain that regardless of who emerges as top dog, the working class will continue to be exploited.
Historically, communist-led revolutions have followed world wars and the mass slaughter of our class amid the bosses’ fight for profits and dominance. Today, once again, only international working class unity and communist revolution can stop imperialist war.

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World’s Bosses Can Offer Nothing for Workers

From the point of view of the international working class, Trump’s Asia trip was a disaster:
The biggest humanitarian crisis in Asia today is the mass murder and forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of starving Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Buddhist rulers have persecuted the mostly Muslim Rohingya people for centuries. Since the military takeover in 1962, the government has excluded the Rohingyas from citizenship. They need official permission to marry and have limited access to education, jobs, and residency. Of course, China’s One Belt One Road initiative has exacerbated this crisis. Not a peep was uttered about these atrocities by racist Trump, Xi, or any other capitalist bosses.
Trump praised Phillipines President Rodrigo Duterte’s “unbelievable job on the drug problem.” This is the same Duterte who said, “Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Phillipines). I’d be happy to slaughter them.” The U.S. bosses’ relationship with the Phillipines is rocky, as the historical U.S. ally aligns more closely with China.
The Asia trip was trumpeted as a U.S. diplomatic offensive to hem in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. However, neither Russia nor China agreed to any measures against North Korea beyond those already agreed upon (Politico, 11/14). And the chairwoman of the ruling party in South Korea, Choo Mi-ae, told a Washington think tank that the U.S. should “under no circumstances” take any military action against North Korea without the express consent of the South Korean government.
The failure to make any new significant trade deals or forge new alliances to constrain China are both clear signs of the decline of U.S. power in Asia.

BOSTON, November 18—A thousand anti-racist protestors rallied to stop a gathering of 50 fascists at the Boston Common. This follows a similar rally in August, when 40,000 people marched from up and down the East Coast to oppose neo-Nazis like the Oath Keepers, Patriotic Prayer, and other white-supremacist militias. As part of a new generation of gutter racist organizations, emboldened by the brazenly racist Trump presidency, these groups openly advocate “white nationalism” and anti-immigrant racism. They have sent armed vigilantes to intimidate people demonstrating against police killings of Black workers.
This time the fascists were denied a permit. They came anyway, saying they had the right to assemble on the Boston Common, a large and historic park open to all. Though the rally was illegal, liberal Boston Mayor Marty Walsh showed he was squarely on the fascists’ side. Several hundred Boston police, state police and other cops came to protect the fascists. Once again, we saw how the capitalist bosses serve their own racist interests in deciding when and where to enforce their laws. Without the cops, the fascists couldn’t organize!
Death to Fascism, Power to the Workers
Members and friends of Progressive Labor Party arrived in downtown Boston just as the kkkops were leading the fascists Tremont Street to the Boston Common. We held a bullhorn rally right there on the sidewalk, just across from the “alt right” and its armed cop guard. Although we lacked the forces to physically confront both the fascists and the cops, we had a successful 30-minute rally. We were joined by people off the street, including one who stayed to the end. We distributed CHALLENGE and a leaflet titled: “Learn From History – Destroy Fascism Now!” We unfurled our anti-fascist banner and spoke on the bullhorn to receptive passersby and those on their way to protest.
Then we decided to approach the Parkman Bandstand within 100 feet of where the fascists were assembled. As we walked into the Common, we found ourselves in an armed camp, with police stationed everywhere. The bandstand was barricaded to protect the fascists from righteous working-class anger. As we arrived, and the fascists began spewing their racist lies, we raised our banner and took up our bullhorn once again to drown them out. Finally the cops led the cowards out and simultaneously cordoned off most of the protesters so that we couldn’t follow. We chanted as loudly as we could: “Hitler rose, Hitler fell, Nazi scum can go to hell!” and “Death, death, death to the fascists, power, power, power to the workers!”
Before we left, we distributed more than 500 leaflets and close to 50 CHALLENGEs. We reached many people with our militant, anti-capitalist ideas on the need to smash fascist movements before they grow. At the same time, this experience showed us that we need to build up our anti-fascist forces.
Ruling Class Crises Lead to World War
As we explained at the rally, capitalist rulers from Turkey to Saudi Araba to China to the U.S. are disciplining their own ranks because their system is in crisis and they can no longer rule in the old way. The dominant bosses, like finance capital in the U.S., use fascist groups to help them consolidate power and attempt to divide and intimidate the international working class. We made it clear that rising fascism is an essential step toward global inter-imperialist war. Capitalism cannot be reformed to stop fascism. Only communist revolution can smash the lethal profit system and end fascism and imperialist war forever.
What we must learn from history: world events today are similar to what occurred in Europe in the 1930s. In both England and Germany, large fascist movements were backed by big capitalist financiers. In England, working people crushed the black-shirt fascists in the streets. In Germany, they fought the Nazis but lost the street battles. The German Communist Party relied on the electoral process and the dangerous illusion that fascism could be stopped by an alliance with “progressive” capitlists. That grave mistake ultimately cost the lives of 6 million Jewish people and tens of millions of others.
Today the fascists and their backers are clear in their intentions: subjugate Black, Latin, Asian, and immigrant workers; suppress and divide our class; defend the U.S. profit empire. Allowing fascists to organize has consequences. Enough is enough! As we have learned from the horrors of history, we need to stop this scum now, along with the sick capitalist system that finances and protects them! We will continue our struggle in Boston and around the world!