[World War I] has undoubtedly created the acutest crises and has incredibly intensified the sufferings of the masses. The reactionary character of this war, the shameless lie of the bourgeoisie of all countries which covers its predatory aims with “national” ideology, all this inevitably creates…revolutionary sentiments in the masses. Our duty is to help make these sentiments conscious, to deepen them and give them form. The only correct expression of this task is the slogan “Turn the imperialist war into civil war [class war, ed.].” All consistent class struggle in time of war, all “mass action” earnestly conducted must inevitably lead to this. We cannot know whether in the first or in the second imperialist war between the great nations, whether during or after it, a strong revolutionary movement will flare up. Whatever the case may be, it is our absolute duty systematically and unflinchingly to work in that particular direction.
—V.I. Lenin, Turn Imperialist War Into Civil War (August 1915)

A little over two years after Lenin wrote these prophetic words the Russian communists (Bolsheviks) led the working class to a socialist revolution right in the middle of World War I. Today the imperialist world powers (United States, China, Russia) are devastating the world’s workers as they promote many, vicious regional wars and move ever closer to world war. Millions of workers are sucked into fighting and dying in these imperialist wars for profit and resources, but many are also rebelling and striking against their own profiteering, warmongering bosses. Now, more than ever, the job of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is to fight the bosses everywhere, to disrupt their plans for war and world domination and to rebuild a worldwide, revolutionary, communist movement to seize power for the working class.
The young, Black rebels of Ferguson, Missouri had it right when they violently fought the racist cops and proclaimed that “It’s the whole damn system.” That rebellion set an example for workers and students worldwide. Many members of our Party went to Ferguson, learned from that militant fightback, and also were able to provide some leadership. And the Progressive Labor Party grew, both in numbers and in toughness.
Young, Multiracial Collectives Lead the Party
At our convention in 2015 we adopted a new collective style of leadership with many young comrades, strengthened by Ferguson, stepping forward and taking on more responsibility. This past year has shown this to be an excellent decision. Collectives now lead most areas of Party work, with young comrades, especially women, Black, Latin, and immigrant comrades, at the forefront. Challenge articles and editorials are researched, discussed, and written collectively. We have had cadre schools for college comrades, internationally, and for producing Challenge.
This transition to collective leadership paved the road for even sharper struggles in 2016. Our new, young Party leaders became stronger leaders. They learned mainly through struggles against the bosses and the bosses’ government. In San Francisco they helped lead a takeover of City Hall. While occupying City Hall they organized study groups explaining communism. Soon after, comrades in Anaheim and Sacramento battled KKK and Nazi scum to show them that there’s no free speech for racists!
Several comrades with a bullhorn provided leadership in Baton Rouge during the rebellion against racist police terror. A few weeks later, a local leader from Baton Rouge joined us in Philadelphia to protest against the Democratic National Convention. When we exposed Bernie Sanders in the streets outside the convention, many Sanders supporters joined us and some came to our forum. In Cleveland, comrades learned from workers in the neighborhood where Tamir Rice was murdered. Those workers didn’t care about the Republican National Convention going on downtown. They knew it wouldn’t stop racist police murders. Some agreed with the ideas of communism and took CHALLENGE for their friends. In Minneapolis, we learned about boldness when we interrupted Hillary Clinton at the American Federation of Teachers Convention. We unfurled a banner and led chants to show that Clinton is just as racist as the rest of them. In the Bronx our young leaders have stepped forward both in the streets and at several college campuses fighting back against racism and exposing the futility of elections.
In Haiti, as our young leaders organized relief efforts after Hurricane Matthew, they also explained that only communism can end capitalist exploitation once and for all. In Pakistan, comrades are leading anti-sexist struggles in the brick kiln industry and fighting for better wages and working conditions in electricity, sanitation, and gas companies. In Mexico, comrades are leading the struggle against fascist attacks on teachers and workers in several provinces. From India to Standing Rock we are fighting back against the bosses’ exploitation and building a mass, revolutionary, communist party that will lead the working-class to power.
Spread Challenge and its Communist Ideas Worldwide
But it’s never enough. We can always do more, and better. The bosses will not let us rest. As imperialist competition intensifies and misery for the working-class increases all over the world, so do fascist movements, from Donald Trump in the U.S. to Marine Le Pen in France. But the only solution is communist revolution. Whether it’s a civil war in Syria or Yemen or Ukraine, capitalism offers nothing for workers but death and destruction. CHALLENGE does a great job of explaining what’s going on, and we must bring its communist ideas and our communist Party to the workers:

From Flint, Michigan to Standing Rock—
Strikes in India and Pakistan to
a failed coup in Turkey—
Teacher rebellion in Mexico to
national prison strike in the U.S.—
Be it military bases in tiny Djibouti or
the racist police killings in Brazil—
Let’s bring challenge, its communist ideas, and PLP to every corner of the world.

Because the Ferguson rebels had it right: “It’s the Whole Damn System!” Help us in making 2017 a great year of struggle for the international working class. 2016 has steeled us for more intense fightbacks in 2017. Join the Progressive Labor Party. Fight for communism!

The United States empire is weaker than at any time since World War II. This weakness is exposing divisions among U.S. bosses over the future of their threatened empire, and in particular over U.S. relations with Russia. For now, the U.S. bosses seek co-existence with Russia and their other main imperialist rival, China, to give them time to mobilize for an inevitable global conflict. As the Council on Foreign Relations, the leading think tank for U.S. main-wing, finance capitalism, observes:

An extended standoff between supporters of a liberal international order and those who contest it may accidentally lead to outright conflict. A better approach would be for liberal countries to prepare themselves for a period of awkward coexistence with illiberal ones, cooperating on some occasions and competing on others (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2017).

Opportunistic on Russia
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia’s sphere of influence  shrunk dramatically. Former Soviet nations were absorbed into the pro-U.S./European Union NATO bloc. More recently, the U.S. empire has entered a period of marked decline. In the post-World War II era, U.S. imperialist domination has centered on control of Middle East oil. After the 1979 Iranian revolution , however, U.S. domination in the region gradually waned. A resurgent Russia has expanded its regional influence and directly challenged U.S. domination. On December 20, in the latest setback for the U.S. ruling class, Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow “to work toward a political accord to end Syria’s nearly six-year war, leaving the United States on the sidelines as the countries sought to drive the conflict in ways that serve their interests” (New York Times, 12/21).
These defeats for U.S. imperialism, and the bosses’ uncertainty over how to respond to them, explain their disarray over November’s presidential elections and Donald Trump’s proposed cabinet. Even so, the nomination of Rex Tillerson, chief of Exxon Mobil, is another indication that the rulers’ main finance wing will align a Trump administration to serve their needs.
At least one section of the main wing appears to be buying time for global conflict while making profits along the way. Where former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond was unable to close a deal with Russia in the 2000s, Tillerson found more success:

Tillerson had spent time in the 1990s overseeing a flagship Exxon project in Russia. And he flew there in 2011 to meet with Putin and announce a strategic partnership with Rosneft, the national oil company that absorbed [formerly privately owned] Yukos’ main assets after [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky was thrown in jail.
The two companies were to jointly develop potentially massive oil reserves in Russia’s Arctic waters, the Black Sea, and Siberian unconventional resources. Putin spoke of investments from the deal eventually reaching perhaps $500 billion—a big number even for Exxon. No sooner had the venture struck oil beneath the Kara Sea, though, than Exxon was forced to down tools as U.S. sanctions over the Ukraine crisis kicked in (Bloomberg, 10/12).

Tillerson is backed by core members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment: James Baker (secretary of state under George H.W. Bush), Condoleezza Rice (secretary of state under George W. Bush), and Robert Gates (CIA director under Bush I, secretary of defense under Bush II). All three have ties to the oil industry (Media Matters, 12/13).
With so much at stake for Exxon Mobil, a chief source of profits for the main wing, U.S. rulers may be prepared to accept a short-term political defeat by ceding influence to Russia in the Middle East.  
Syria: Killing Fields of Imperialist Rivalry
As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-consolidates his control, despite U.S. proxy efforts to oust him, the Russian military is operating freely throughout the country--the first U.S. rival to do so since World War II. The sacking of Aleppo by the pro-Russian Assad regime could not have succeeded without military support from Russian imperialism. This campaign, brokered with regional powers Turkey and Iran, had no input from the U.S. or the EU. Turkey agreed to withdraw support from rebel factions in exchange for an oil pipeline deal with Russia (Reuters, 10/10). The strengthening of military and economic ties between Russia and Turkey  is a significant reversal of fortune for U.S. imperialism.
After the failed U.S. invasions of Iraq, the new Iraqi government is leaning toward U.S. nemesis Iran. Several Iraqi military units are fighting under Iranian military leadership alongside Russia in support of the Assad regime. The potential rise of a Syria-Iraq-Iran axis, tied to an increasingly assertive Russia, would be a devastating blow to U.S. imperialism in the region.  
Sharpening Infighting in U.S. Ruling Class
The infighting among U.S. intelligence agencies stems from the bosses’ disagreement over how to handle their imperialist rival. The forces around Trump seem to want to make a temporary deal with Russia; other elements of the ruling class are pushing to go on the offensive. Inter-imperialist relations are inherently unstable; competition and cooperation exist simultaneously. Regardless of whether the U.S. bosses make a short-term deal with Russia or take a more hardened stance, any alliance will be temporary. Given the perpetual economic crisis of capitalism, it could quickly disintegrate into open hostility, a potential prelude to the next world war.
The CIA now claims that Russian cyber-attacks were deliberately conducted to help Trump win the election, and that the U.S. must respond. Politicians of every stripe, including Obama, have vowed to strike back. The CIA accusations follow a series of alleged Russia-Trump connections, based on anonymous leaks from a secret investigation. It’s worth noting that former acting CIA Director Michael Morell endorsed Clinton in the New York Times and claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, called Trump  “a clear and present danger” to U.S. national security (CNN.com, 08/09).
On the other hand, key sections within the FBI were furious that Hillary Clinton was not criminally charged for mishandling classified information. FBI Director James Comey’s October 28 letter to Congress, essentially reopening a closed investigation of Clinton and her aids, clearly damaged Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency (The Intercept, 12/10).
Fight for Communism
After the main-wing U.S. bosses bet on Clinton and lost, millions of workers are still looking for some other reform “leader” to save the day. Their disillusionment with the warmongering, racist Clinton—and their disgust with the gutter-racist and sexist Trump—presents an opportunity for the Progressive Labor Party. It doesn’t mean the masses will automatically flock to us. But many more people seem more open to communist ideas as the capitalist system exposes its true and horrifying nature for all to see.
Winning masses to PLP means fighting back on our job and school and building anti-imperialist, anti-racist struggles. When organized around communist ideas, these struggles build confidence in each other and in our class. The working class is the only force that can end this ruthless imperialist system. Join us!

BHOPAL, INDIA—Police gunned down eight unarmed prisoners, accused as members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who fled from jail in Bhopal.
This brutal execution of Muslim workers is a part of increasing racism and fascism worldwide. As fascism rises, the bosses deceive workers into scapegoating our Muslim, dark-skinned, and immigrant working-class brothers and sisters. Anti-worker violence will not fix the problems of constant unemployment, hunger, and crisis caused by capitalism. We need to turn our outrage against the bosses and smash capitalism once and for all.
The eight men were awaiting trial for three years on a number of charges including “terror related charges, sedition, and robbery” although some were not jailed until last February. Others had escaped from a different jail and had been recaptured. One video showed the group with their hands up, seeming to surrender. A witness said they had no weapons, as did the Home Minister and Inspector General of the anti-terror squad, who added that no police were injured in the fatal encounter. However, after a video surfaced showing police pumping bullets into the body of one escapee, police said the men opened fire on them with four country-made guns.
The details don’t add up. Like Black, Latin, Muslim and Arab workers targeted by police in the United States, Indian police are targeting Muslim workers. The bosses criminalize targets of police violence to justify their racist murder, like Shantel Davis and Jessica Williams, whose deaths were justified by police claims that they had stolen cars. No worker deserves to be killed by police.
Intensifying Racism,
Stepping Stone for Fascism
In India, we have seen the assaults and killings of Muslims, and some turn their heads because they are not Muslim. We have seen the racist assaults and killings of Dalits ((lowest caste group, previously known as the “untouchables”), the confiscation of land and killings of members of Scheduled Tribes, the killings of unarmed Tamil woodcutters in Andhra. We have seen police attack and beat striking workers. We have even seen some turn their heads when women are attacked. Recently, the police killed 24 Maoist rebels (New York Times, 10/24). And we have seen the fascist leaders call for jailing and even execution for those who dare to even raise questions! The bosses’ government is using any opposition as an opportunity to terrorize and bring people into line.
We all have to fight against these racist attacks because an attack on one worker is an attack on all workers. They are stepping stones of a government attack on all workers. One aspect of fascism is when the government uses increased racism and nationalism. Fascism is a natural outgrowth of capitalism, and with growing crisis, the capitalist dictatorship intensifies.
There is a rise of Hindu nationalism in India, the country with the second largest Muslim population (Foreign Policy, 8/18/15). Moreover, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric has emboldened racists in India. The celebration “of Mr. Trump in New Delhi in May, and others like it in India this year, are the work of a small, devoted and increasingly visible faction of Hindu nationalists in India” (NYT, 10/14).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and many other groups promote Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) combined with violent, anti-Muslim racism. These nationalist groups organize attacks on Muslim people, drive them from their jobs, and some call for the deportation of some twenty million to Bangladesh (The Washington Post, 11/27). Modi was chief minister of Gujarat state in 2002 when Hindu mobs killed more than 1,000 Muslim people (Foreign Policy, 8/18/15). He was heavily implicated in this massacre, to the extent that the U.S. refused to issue him a passport. As prime minister, he has given a green light to all racist and nationalist groups to attack mainly Muslim people, but also lower caste workers, and anyone fighting back.
These attacks are the same as what is happening in the U.S., France, the Philippines, and many other countries around the world. The bosses want us to think that other workers, not capitalism, is the problem. As fascism increases, we must fight back as a united working class.
We Need Working-Class Unity
We cannot turn our heads because all of our lives depend on supporting each other! No cover-ups! We must not tolerate attacks on any of us—Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Dalits, women, members of tribes, members of other ethnic groups, striking workers, political dissidents—because attacks against any of us are a step towards intensified dictatorship that will hurt us all. We must use our power to protest and to build the unity we all need! We are building the Progressive Labor Party, a revolutionary communist party, different from the corrupt parties, to unite workers across the world to destroy capitalism. That is the only way to permanently stop fascism. Fight for communism!