“[T]he war of 1914-18 was imperialist (that is, an annexationist, predatory, war of plunder) on the part of both sides; it was a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence of finance capital….”

Vladimir Lenin, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” 1917.

Whether or not Russia invades Ukraine in the coming days or weeks, the growing weakness of U.S. imperialism—and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S. military arm in Europe—is more and more apparent. French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for “strategic autonomy” for the European Union (news.usni.org, 2/8). Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding a NATO rollback from Eastern Europe. Ukrainian officials are sending mixed signals about their long-term ambition to join NATO—a move that Putin has warned would lead to nuclear conflict. Weakened by internal ruling-class divisions and knowing they’re not politically prepared for a global military conflict, the U.S. finance capital bosses—represented by President Joe Biden—have openly ruled out sending troops to Ukraine. Eight years after invading and grabbing back the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian imperialists are determined to restore more of the old Soviet sphere of influence. 

As CHALLENGE goes to press, both Biden and Putin are suggesting that a diplomatic “solution” is still possible. But make no mistake. Even if Russia decides to pull back for now, global instability and an international crisis of capitalism is pushing the world closer to fascism and World War III. For the international working class, this period contains both great danger and huge opportunity. Only a communist revolution can turn imperialist war into class war against the capitalist parasites. Only communism can end the bosses’ mass slaughters of our working-class sisters and brothers for all time. Join Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and help build a worldwide communist movement!

Rise and fall of NATO: sunset for U.S. bosses?

 In 1949, four years after the end of World War II, NATO was founded by the United States, Canada, and 10 countries in Western Europe as a military alliance to block further expansion of the Soviet Union. Electoral victories by communist parties in Italy and Czechoslovakia, along with Soviet control of East Germany, intensified the U.S. rulers’ fears that they could lose the Cold War. They knew they couldn’t afford to give up their place as the dominant imperialist superpower; no empire in history has ever peacefully passed the torch. NATO was liberal democracy’s iron fist. It was formed to guarantee that the U.S. bosses—and junior partners like Britain and France—could continue to amass super-profits by exploiting workers and robbing natural resources around the world. 

In the 1990s, after the Soviet Union imploded, the U.S.-dominated NATO expanded to absorb three former Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), and several other countries formerly dominated by the Soviets under the now-defunct Warsaw Pact, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. As NATO bases and missiles moved closer to Russia’s borders, the U.S.-led alliance has murdered millions of workers in Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Afghanistan, and the Balkans in southeastern Europe.

But even as NATO expanded, it got weaker. Without the Soviet Union as a unifying threat, cutthroat gangs of capitalists went their own ways. Nationalism swamped In 2015, a Pew Research Center poll found that a majority of people in every NATO country in Europe were opposed to using military force to help an invaded NATO member.  And as the rotten profit system continued to decay, liberal democracy was exposed as a sham—as the dictatorship of one or another set of bosses—in Bosnia, Hungary, Turkey, and (more recently) the U.S. (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2018). If NATO was designed to protect the so-called “freedoms” of democracy, what was its purpose now?

Today, the U.S. is too preoccupied with arch-rival China—and the strong possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan—to aggressively contain Russia if it moves on Ukraine. It’s no accident that U.S. Secretary Anthony Blinken just took a weeklong trip to meet with leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and other countries in the “Indo-Pacific region,” an open campaign to counter China’s economic, political, and military rise. More than “any other part of the world,” Blinken said, “what happens in this region is going to shape the lives of Americans” (Asean Post, 2/14).

The U.S. bosses know they’re not ready to fight a big war. And even if they felt they had no choice, Ukraine wouldn’t be the hill they'd choose to die on. A recent lead article in Foreign Affairs, finance capital’s most authoritative magazine, was headlined, “Time for NATO to Close Its Door.” It basically proposed to give in to Putin:

With the alliance already overextended in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods, incorporating Ukraine would be strategic madness….The United States needs a new strategy for dealing with Russia in eastern Europe, one that does not rely primarily on NATO (Foreign Affairs, 1/17). 

The weakening of NATO—the collapse of the old liberal world order—presents a danger for the world’s working class. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Vladimir Lenin shows how the world’s bosses need to invade other nations to contend for top-dog status and survive as capitalist powers. Finance capital, the main-wing liberals who still lead the U.S. ruling class, will need to discipline both the capitalists and the workers to get ready for that war. They will be forced to turn to fascism, even if it has a liberal face and comes to power through the bosses’ election apparatus.

The working class always suffers in the rulers’ quest for world domination. Their wars are waged with our blood. But as Lenin noted, “[O]ut of the universal ruin caused by the war a world-wide revolutionary crisis is arising which, however prolonged and arduous its stages may be, cannot end otherwise than in a proletarian revolution and in its victory.” 

In Russia, in the midst of fighting World War I, workers organized for communism and took state power! In China, in the midst of the fight against fascism and the horrors of World War II, workers organized for communism and took state power! Although the leadership of the old communist movement made serious errors that eventually reversed these revolutions, we can learn from their mistakes—and be inspired by their courage. World War III is a scary prospect for the working class, but many workers around the world are already in a life-and-death struggle against imperialism and capitalist state terror. History shows us we have only one way out of this misery: a mass, violent revolution for communism. Join Progressive Labor Party and organize for a worldwide communist revolution! 

CHICAGO, February 5—The capitalist ruling class has again showed that their prosecution of racist kkkops who murder workers is just a farce. A multiracial and militant group of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends held a CHALLENGE sale and open protest at a busy intersection on the city’s south side against the release of Jason Van Dyke, the white cop who murdered Black teenager LaQuan McDonald in October 2014.

As Van Dyke serves less than half of an already insulting six-year prison sentence ordered in 2019, workers are reminded that the torture and murder of our class by the klan-in-blue is not a crime under capitalism. The ongoing violence committed by kkkops IS their job! They fulfill their primary purpose of instilling fear, control, and terror among our class so that the bosses’ property is protected and their ability to exploit us remains intact.

The liberal response is for workers to beg the police and politicians for less violence. Workers are convinced by politicians and so-called "community leaders” to blame each other for racist and sexist conditions and to keep our class bound to their deadly system. The lack of quality housing and safe schools, an abundance of unhealthy food, scant economic opportunities, and profiting off of the suffering and alienation of workers are all purposeful attacks by the ruling class to maintain power. 

PLP pushes for all workers to join us boldly in challenging this whole capitalist profit system worldwide and burying it forever with communist revolution! 

Capitalist "justice" means death for our class

As workers have developed new and energetic means to fight back against capitalist abuses during this pandemic period, the bosses have been on a high, fearful alert. Kkkop killings of workers have continued, especially as workers increased their efforts to hold them accountable. Misleaders in our area presented the conviction of Van Dyke as a victory. During the trial, workers voiced their distrust of the bosses’ legal system and were punished for it. Even when the higher-ups sacrificed Van Dyke, PLP continued to demand justice. 

Nationally in the U.S. from 2018 to 2022, police have killed 4,542 people (mappingpoliceviolence.org). These brazen murders increased in 2020, as many workers took to the streets to protest the ruling class protection of their power and profits and their sacrifice of workers’ lives. 

Despite the bosses’ attempts to drill their toxic ideologies into our heads, Black workers continue to reject racism and the illusion of powerlessness to lead the working class in holding cops and their capitalists accountable for this terror. These actions have encouraged multiracial offensives around the world, and offer an inspiring glimpse at the ability of our class to create an antiracist, antisexist communist society after passing through the fires of revolution. 

Fighting for communism is the only answer 

During our action, PLP members and friends took turns on the bullhorn blasting the ruling class and their continuous defense of their primary hit squad of enforcers. Workers in cars, buses, and traveling on foot in the freezing winter temperatures stopped to take copies of CHALLENGE and some talked with PLP members about their experiences with the racist police and how it affects them.  

Ever since the initial cover-up and subsequent release of the video of LaQuan’s murder seven years ago, we have been in the thick of the mass fightback, advocating for communist revolution as the only solution for working people. In 2016, our Party even led the action that held Van Dyke responsible for murdering LaQuan to his front door (See CHALLENGE, 7/15/16). Van Dyke’s early release proves again that the racist torture and murder of our class is all part of the ruling class's plan. Standing with other workers to hold the bosses responsible and building the Party is part of our plan to free our class!

Workers know the threats that we continuously face under capitalism. Almost everyone has a story of how they, or someone they are close to, have been drastically affected by brutal attacks from the system. As a Party, we fight the capitalist system with and for other workers. As we build with each other, we want to win our class sisters and brothers to the reality that we will never truly be free of these abuses under capitalism. We have to build the Party, strengthen our political line and practice, and make the fight for communism an integral part of our lives now.

INGLEWOOD, CA. February 13 - In the shadow of the newly-built $5 billion SoFi Stadium, home of the LA Rams football team and host to Super Bowl 56, working-class tenants in a local apartment complex are organizing together to secure their class interests. They are fighting evictions, and putting their rent money towards the cost of basic repairs instead of paying their blood-sucking slumlord, Alfa Investments. This struggle has the potential to spread in this city torn apart by racist unemployment, gentrification, homelessness and poverty. 

Under capitalism, everything that the working class needs to live is tainted and poisoned by the practice of commodity exchange. Whether it is the need for decent and safe housing, food, or clothing, capitalism puts a price tag on it.

Working class tenants fight back 

Two Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been active in the Lennox-Inglewood Tenants’ Union (LITU), which has organized for over two years in an apartment building across from SoFi. At the first tenants’ meeting in the complex courtyard, the slumlord called the cops to try and scare off the union and intimidate the tenants. This tactic failed. Although the pandemic made visiting much more difficult, the LITU organizers persevered. After the tenants’ demands for decent housing were ignored by Alfa, and one tenant was threatened with eviction, they decided to sharpen the struggle.

 LITU members and some tenants from the building rallied in front of the Courthouse to support the tenant threatened with eviction. One LITU member went into the courtroom and advocated for her. The judge postponed her case for two months. Then the tenants decided to work with a local Los Angeles group opposed to the 2028 Olympics, which is slated to take place at SoFi and many other locations around Los Angeles. 

The No Olympics group produced a short film featuring three tenants who talked about their rundown, rodent and roach-infested apartments, and the slumlord’s failure to adequately exterminate and make the necessary repairs. One tenant has been living without a stove or lock on his front door for over a year; another’s carpet is infested with mold. Shoddy “repairs” in her apartment further reflect the racist arrogance and neglect of the slumlord. The film has helped LITU raise funds to buy materials needed for repairs and attract volunteers willing to donate skilled labor to make them.

Some of the tenants we’re working with have been regularly getting copies of CHALLENGE. The Party’s newspaper has helped them see through the hype surrounding SoFi and put Inglewood’s racist gentrification into a broader context of why it is inevitable that “redevelopment” under capitalism will always serve the needs of the billionaires and banks who profit off these schemes. We have also shared our Paper and Party ideas with several LITU members. Communist ideas have generally been well-received.

Bosses and politicians gang up to build SoFi 

In addition to these rotten conditions, workers are paying exorbitant rents. Since the decision from the National Football League (NFL) in January 2016 approving the Rams move from St. Louis to Inglewood, average rents skyrocketed, increasing almost 60 percent  (LA Times, 2/9). 

Inglewood’s rent control ordinance, not passed until November 2019, allows annual “cost of living” rent increases up to California’s 10 percent limit and vacancy decontrol, giving landlords a perverse incentive to drive out current tenants and raise rents to “market” levels. Alfa’s calculation that it can charge much more if it drives out the current tenants is behind its refusal to make repairs. The collaboration of Inglewood’s Mayor James Butts and the City Council with investment companies like Alfa and their shameless promotion of SoFi as a savior for the largely Black and Latin population of Inglewood have led to increased homelessness and an exodus of working class families who can no longer afford to live here.

One Inglewood Code Enforcement officer told a complaining tenant there’s “nothing we can do” about dangerously soft and sinking floorboards. Another cited Alfa’s violations, but then never followed through to check if repairs were actually made (they weren’t). These attitudes contrast with Butts’ groveling towards multi-billionaire Rams owner Stan Kroenke. According to Kroenke, at his first meeting with Butts in 2013 about the prospect of the new stadium “[h]e (Butts) just said very simply, ‘What do you need?’” (USA Today, 2/8).     

This stark picture of non-stop racist attacks on the working class has only been magnified by the obscene spectacle of this year’s Super Bowl. The most expensive single ticket for this year’s extravaganza was $34,000, enough to pay rent for one of the complex’s tenants for almost two years. The entire area within one mile of the Stadium was cordoned off and homeless encampments swept away. The area was then flooded with local cops, Homeland Security, FBI and ICE officers, joined overhead by Blackhawk Helicopters, all supposedly to “protect the public health” and prevent a “terrorist attack”.

Working class tenants will never get justice in the bosses’ courts or from the bosses’ legislatures. The principle of making profit off of private property is ingrained in the U.S. Constitution and is fundamental to capitalism. A communist revolution will end that practice, and a communist society will mobilize our class to build all the housing that the working class needs worldwide. No longer will we pay for something as fundamental as a place to live or be put out on the street if we can’t. Join the fight for that world by joining PLP! 

NEW YORK, February 5— Over 45 students, faculty, staff, and parents, including members of the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) marched on the home of the City University of New York (CUNY) Chancellor Felix “Felo” Matos Rodriguez in Pelham, New York, humorously advertised as “Brunch with Felo.” We were sending a message that we, the united working class, won’t accept the racist austerity at CUNY. The relatively quiet suburb was rocked by chants, speeches, and later, music.

These struggles give PLP members and friends lessons in class struggle—learning how to organize, be bold, and struggle with friends and co-workers to step forward. We want to continue working with education workers and students to build this movement towards a strike, and, at the same time, to expose the nature of capitalist education and the limits of reform. 

 We stay ready

Under capitalism, any reforms we win are short-lived. Our students and the international working-class deserve nothing less than communism. Fighting for that new world means masses of students and workers must join PLP and fight for communist revolution.

The demonstration was called for by RAFA (Rank and File Action), a group of union members who have been leading a fight back to build strike readiness. Meanwhile PLP members are building “revolution readiness.” Capitalist education at CUNY, led by its filthy rich chancellor, is a racist disaster. The Wall Street bankers and business owners who control CUNY want to brainwash us to become compliant workers as they rake in billions and eventually they want us to be willing soldiers in their imperialist wars for profit.

While many of our students come from the Bronx, including the poorest Congressional district in the U.S. (District 15 in the South Bronx Chancellor Rodriguez lives in Pelham, one of the wealthier communities in the U.S., and enjoys a salary of $670,000 a year, plus a monthly housing stipend of $7,500. While his appointment was declared “groundbreaking,” as the first Latin Chancellor at CUNY, Rodriguez’s only real success was shuffling CUNY’s nearly 500,000 mostly Black, Latin and immigrant students into a program of racist austerity. 

As we marched up the slippery roads, we chanted and took over the streets by the Chancellor’s home, giving speeches about the need to fight racism, the need for multiracial unity, and the need to fight for communism where workers run society. 

“We accomplished a lot”

Spirits were high as we made ourselves comfortable on the chancellor’s lawn. Leaflets were distributed to passing cars  titled, “Do you know your neighbor?” We collectively organized food and small snack tables were set up with a spread of muffins, rolls, fruit, coffee, and even tamales. A radio was hung from the tree as we listened to music and chatted, getting to know each other, and continuing to exchange ideas about the struggle at CUNY. Signs were planted on the chancellor’s lawn demanding free tuition as marchers and PL’ers shared and discussed the latest issues of CHALLENGE.

Especially given the weather constraints, the fact that last week's protest was canceled due to a storm, and a travel advisory that was issued the day of, this “brunch” escalated our battle. While a patrol car sat down the street, and an irate neighbor let her dog out to bark at us, it was made clear that this was just the opening shot. One of the speakers from a student strike committee said, “I feel like we accomplished a lot.”

This rising spirit of fight-back is crucial in building an international Party. With each reform struggle, with each street we take, with each lawn we overrun, our confidence in ourselves, in our comrades, and in our ability to eventually build a communist revolution, the ultimate goal, grows sharper.

Welcome back, fight back!

CUNY is no stranger to racist austerity and has been running on the backs of underpaid adjuncts, or part timers, for a long time. But clearly, the Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened the situation on campuses and each semester, students, staff, and faculty are faced with ever worsening conditions. While there has been a push to reopen the campuses, especially with the “70-30” mandate ( 70 percent of classes in person and 30 percent virtual), many campuses are not ready.

On one Bronx campus, the library isn’t open enough to meet student needs and the buildings are falling apart. On another campus, there is nowhere for students to sit, the cafeteria is closed, there is no soap in the bathroom, and a major outdoor garden is closed. Many of the facilities are not ready, and because of the arbitrary “70/30” rule, many classes have been canceled, resulting in adjunct layoffs. On one campus, it’s so disorganized that students wait in line outside just to get on campus, on top of many more health and safety violations all over CUNY campuses. The list goes on!

Brunch was just the beginning

This was a bold idea and everyone who participated felt it was a successful event. While we are told everything is “back to normal” and forced back into dire conditions, the meetings where these decisions are made, such as Board of Trustees hearings, are still virtual. So, the idea of remaining in the Chancellor’s face is one that appeals to us!

Our “brunch” was a glimpse of what that new world could be, with everyone sharing, no bosses, and standing together as equals whether student or faculty. From immersion in these day-to-day struggles to building a strike movement against the CUNY bosses, these “schools for communism” also teach us how to build for revolution. We invite our friends to join PLP and apply these lessons to help lead our class to the ultimate victory of communism!