NEW YORK CITY, April 15—The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bosses are continuing their racist and life-threatening policies of creating an unsafe environment for both riders and workers of the NYC subway system. These attacks are about maintaining the profits of Wall Street banks and businesses. The MTA is  reducing train service, leading to crowded trains that will recklessly expose riders to the coronavirus and increase the wait times between trains.
Communists in the revolutionary Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are in the midst of the struggle organizing for rider-worker unity and for communist revolution to smash the MTA bosses, union misleaders, and this entire racist, sexist, imperialist capitalist system!
Bosses and union misleaders in bed
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, transit bosses reduced service on all lines, initially blaming the reduction on their own workers (of which over 150 have died due to the MTA’s lack of preparedness) rather than the 90 percent reduced ridership.. Since then, service has been restored to most lines, but the racist bosses took the opportunity to cut jobs on the busy C and F lines.
Instead of building a mass, united fightback of transit workers and riders, Transit Workers’ Union (TWU) Local 100 leadership showed they are deep in bed with management. They are supporting the bosses’ plans for cutting the scheduled runs along a train line (“jobs”) that created the reduced trips to begin with.
In response to rank and file workers pressing the issue during an online employee town hall on March 12, Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg claimed the cuts were “minimal in scope.”
A look at any subway platform during rush hours exposes Feinberg's racist lies. Ridership is returning, platforms are crowding  again, and fewer cars are carrying more passengers. March 11 marked a  record for the single highest day ridership since the pandemic began, which has already been surpassed  again. (Gothamist, 3/13) Workers' safety remains on the chopping block so the bosses can hoard money, playing with our lives.
Union misleadership: train to nowhere
The naked racism of this crisis was exposed during a recent lawsuit between Local 100 and the MTA, with the MTA telling the mostly working-class Black and Latin riders calling out  the line cuts and crowded trains to accept them. But when mainly white, wealthier Long Island Railroad customers complained about crowding on their trains after service cuts, the MTA immediately reversed them (Gothamist, 3/9)!
Though transit bosses have agreed to restore service on the C and F after a lawsuit that the union dragged their heels in filing (Gothamist, 3/31), that is no guarantee workers are permanently safe: the agreement is verbal only, and not on paper.
Despite receiving billions in federal aid (PIX 11, 3/11), the transit bosses remain committed to cutting service to pay the debts to their Wall Street benefactors, while TWU Local 100’s misleadership carry their bags and enable it all. Transit workers and riders need to join together with  PLP and smash these crooks and their union misleadership stooges!
MTA bosses blame workers for racist neglect
Currently, seven track inspectors are suspended without pay as the MTA, along with the inspector general’s office, scapegoats workers over its horrid safety practices, and pushes for automation and cost saving.
The track inspector’s job is the most important track job in the system, as they walk hundreds of miles of subway tracks collecting data on which tracks need repairs. The track inspector division is made up mainly of track inspectors and two foremen whose job it is to oversee the inspectors’ work.
When the MTA recently moved to a phone-based system of reporting defects, the bosses didn’t ensure the old data written on physical cards was transferred into the new system. Now the bosses are using this excuse to blame the track inspectors for the problems they reported in the past! Track inspectors are on a race to report the old issues before management claims lack of data to say they are not working, and are punishing and suspending track inspectors. The union leadership is accepting these write-ups laying down; not one union representative close to the leadership wanted to represent the workers being suspended.
The system is highly in need of repair. Every time there is track work needed, it causes delays in subway service which the MTA bosses don’t want. There is a system of how things are reported: “P3” being least serious to “P1” meaning the track must be taken out of service. P1s are intentionally avoided by foremen, and if a track inspector believes there’s a P1, a foreman typically reinspects the same track and downgrades it to a P2.
Communists in transit believe this attack on workers is an opportunity to build unity with the riding public and expose the MTA bosses’ policy on safety. It’s time to expose the reports and conditions that management let slide and didn’t repair. It’s time to expose that while the track inspectors report safety issues, the management bosses decide on what gets repaired — and most of the repairs are like band aids on a bleeding artery.
Struggling with coworkers
Comrades active in the MTA and Local 100 have been pushing PLP’s militant anti-racist politics with our coworkers. The bosses have used the pandemic to further poison workers’ minds with more racism, and we’ve encountered many down here who believe that the solution is voting and more cops on trains.
But contradictions are everywhere! At the same time, these same workers have a fire burning deep inside them all from the racist treatment they've endured from transit bosses. We build PLP in transit so that communist leadership can spread the flames of fightback and revolution we need to control the transit system in the heart of U.S. imperialism. Struggle by struggle we can turn the tide against the bosses, and build a Red Army to smash them for a communist world for workers to run! JOIN US!

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, April 4—Once again, this capitalist system has left workers without basic necessities. In response to yet another eviction, a local tenants’ union and non-profit community organization took action today to support a  working-class family. The family is struggling to regain control of their home of 14 years from the clutches of a racist investment company which has bought up “distressed” properties in gentrifying Inglewood. As Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joins the fight for this one family we also fight for all workers to build for communism, a society in which housing would be available to all without the plague of profit.
This nearly five month battle, taking place in the midst of perhaps the largest homeless crisis in the history of California, has been inspiring. We plan to win this battle, but the massive amount of homeless workers rages on, and it’s worldwide. It’s part of this racist, exploitative capitalist system. For homelessness to end, this whole damn system has to go.
We fight alongside our fellow workers and communists have a solemn responsibility to point out the pitfalls of fights to win reforms under capitalism. Capitalism requires that our basic needs be bought and sold for a profit, making housing a commodity.
When a worker can’t make regular payments, the landlords or the banks who hold the mortgage use the capitalist legal system to throw that worker and her family out. This guarantees continued profits for the landlords and bankers. Only a communist revolution will ensure distribution of housing to all based on need and the elimination of homelessness.
Workers call out capitalist lackies
On the morning of our rally, 18 campaigners drove about an hour from Inglewood to Irvine, CA to investor Don Madden’s church. A  non-profit called this action to convince the clergy of the church that they should exercise their moral authority and persuade the investor that buying out Inglewood homes and evicting workers was “wrong” and that he should instead do the “right” thing for this family.
We carried signs and “Wanted” flyers with Madden’s picture on them, and called on church members to help the family by signing a petition and calling Madden’s office.
We rallied in the church parking lot, putting flyers under car windshields and talking to parishioners as they came in and out. Apparently, this was more than what the church leadership could stand. They called the local cops and had their “security” run around taking flyers off cars and even snatch some from the hands of churchgoers who were speaking with us.
Security told us we were trespassing on “private property.”We were escorted to the church’s “free speech” area, on the sidewalk next to the entrance to the parking lot. There, security stood in front of us, motioning cars to drive past us without taking a flyer. Irvine cops also threatened to arrest us if we went into the street to hand a flyer to a driver. This was our “free speech.”
Capitalist segregation divides workers
It was striking to see that, although the church was only an hour’s drive away from the evicted family’s working-class neighborhood, it was an entire world away in other respects. The family lives in a predominantly Black and Latin neighborhood; the church members were almost exclusively white, many driving Mercedes and BMWs.  This non-denominational, Christian church boasts on its website of its “food distribution center,” its diverse clergy, and its goal to “inspire people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world.” But, the church’s main building is the second largest church building in the state.
In 1998, the church purchased an 18-acre piece of adjacent property for $18 million; in 2005, it spent $35 million on a new worship center, bookstore and café; in 2008, it spent $33 million on its student ministries facility, a chapel and a parking garage. Imagine how many homes the church could have bought  struggling working-class families battling homelessness. So much for “fearlessly” changing the world.  
Prior to this action, the campaign had reached out in several ways to the church clergy, with no response. But our mere presence in the parking lot with some flyers and signs brought an immediate reaction. Now the head pastor wanted to talk with us. And what did he have to say in a phone call with the evicted family’s eldest daughter? That he was “shocked” and “offended” by what we did. That he would not do anything to help the family or to reach out to the investor on their  behalf, as this was a “personal matter.”
The moral: apologists for the oppressor class of capitalists and landlords like the head pastor have no shame. Their sense of “right” and “personal morality” does not include calling to account or criticizing racist profiteers who evict workers in the midst of a pandemic.
Capitalism is the true virus
Capitalism breeds bloodsuckers like Madden who make a living off of the misery of working-class families. But Madden is small fry compared to the biggest banks that run the U.S. housing market through their enormous wealth and ability to lend and invest. These banks use their billions to control the politicians who make the laws. These laws protect the profits of the bankers at the expense of the working class.   
Even if this campaign is successful in regaining this one house, it will only allow this one family the “privilege” of continuing to pay and pay a bank or mortgage company for decades. Reforming capitalism’s property laws will also not change their basic dynamic: private property interests always take precedence over the needs of the working class.
A revolutionary communist government would seize control of all available housing and build whatever else is necessary, creating decent housing for all. The plague of homelessness would become a dim memory of capitalism’s savage past.
Fight for communism. Power to the workers!

SAN FRANCISCO, April 11—Over 200 students and workers had a spirited march through San Francisco’s working-class and predominantly Latin Mission District, protesting the ongoing attacks on the City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Angry and sometimes tearful speakers described the plans to let go of over 600 full and part-time teachers and shut down entire programs. People were very open to our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) leaflet, which brought a vision of a communist education to the struggle.
A friend leads the way
We found out about this march when a member of our PLP study group announced it at a Labor Chorus rehearsal. One of the study group leaders encouraged her to attend a study group where she proposed discussing the City College march. We turned the next study group meeting into a short discussion about the fight at CCSF and then reconvened at the demonstration. At the march  a few of us, including our friend, passed out nearly 250 leaflets and several copies of CHALLENGE.
Our PLP study group is mostly composed of progressive and anti-racist friends, many from this Labor Chorus (which happens to be threatened by the cuts at CCSF). We have discussed elections, fascism, racism, and the Party’s principles. But we have talked very little about doing political activity. So it was inspirational when this study group friend accompanied us to a Stop Asian Hate demonstration and then planned and participated with us at the CCSF march and protest.
Victories won by struggle, threatened by bosses’ cutbacks
Decades of struggle by students, workers, and teachers have expanded CCSF into a college, providing large numbers of non-credit, part-time courses for workers, older adults, English-learners, and people interested in art, music, gardening and more. At one point, 1/7 of San Francisco’s population had taken CCSF courses. Then came the attacks—an attempt to shut down the campus altogether, major budget cuts, and an attempt to revoke CCSF’s state accreditation. The many struggles had expanded CCSF’s curriculum, but as with any reform victory under capitalism, CCSF administrators are now reversing our victories.  
The California Board of Governors has a corporate-driven agenda to gut the community colleges and offer only specific vocational certificates or academic courses to a much smaller group of full-time students. Local CCSF administrators are carrying out those plans with massive cuts in faculty, classes, and programs and sabotaging the outreach and enrollment of students.
What would communist education look like?
Some of the reforms won at CCSF give a glimpse of education under communism. Workers can learn mental, manual, and social skills over a lifetime. We can become artists, writers, musicians, and dancers. There are courses for people with disabilities, for victims of domestic or sexual violence, and courses to help overcome isolation and stay physically and mentally fit. There are programs for victims of racism, sexism, ableism, homelessness, and unemployment.
These programs help us cope with some evils of capitalism, but the working class needs communism. Under communism there will be no classes about homelessness and unemployment. They will have been eliminated. Defeating racism and sexism will be primary in every aspect of society. Overcoming isolation and staying physically and mentally fit will be part of daily life, not a class that we take. We can only imagine how communism will unleash the creativity and energy of the working class.
But the bosses want capitalist education as a sorting hat for the next generation of workers—some are declared obedient workers for factories or companies. Others become petty managers and mouthpieces of capita. Still others are part of the military or the reserve army of labor. They want us on an educational conveyor belt with no time to think about what we’re doing or what’s being done to us. Education under capitalism will always serve and change based on the interests of the capitalist class.
Revolution primary over reform
Our study group has helped us be better communists. Discussion of our principles on page two of CHALLENGE has improved our understanding of nationalism and the role of wages and money, and why racism, not white supremacy, best describes what’s at play.  And our practice has improved.
Our study group friend met with us to join the City College fight and bring communist ideas to it. She helped pass out the PLP leaflet to the marchers and community members and contributed to this article. Working together to fight the bosses—now that’s communist education and action!
Capitalism is in crisis and, now more than before, cannot meet our needs for housing, health, jobs, or education. Worldwide tens of thousands of workers are fighting educational cuts like those at CCSF. Under capitalism, we get some education, limited as it is, only when we fight for it. We need communism, but it will never happen unless we organize in the class struggle and bring people closer to the Party, just like we did with this fight.
The bosses can take back any reform we win at CCSF or anywhere else. Our ultimate goal must be a communist revolution, where the working class takes power. So look for a study group in your area, an excellent way to learn about PLP’s ideas and to help plan and participate in activities. Join us!

Police are bosses’ attack dogs
On May 25th, 2020, in Minneapolis, the world watched in horror as the terrorists known as the police did what they do best - murder. The focus was on the four individual officers who were involved in the murder of George Floyd - Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao.
The truth is the police, no matter the color of their skin, have the blood of the working class on their hands. They are all just attack dogs for the capitalist ruling class.
The creation of the police in the 1700s was to capture runaway slaves. Throughout their entire existence, the police have stood against the working class, violently opposing, suppressing, and controlling them. The terrorist police that have killed so many innocent people continue to roam free. 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Alex Flores, David Flores, Cesar Rodriguez, Breonna Taylor, and many more are all victims of the devils who protect and serve the capitalist system (see editorial, page 2).
Backed by the courts and billionaire corporations, the police have a solid history of walking free after cold blooded murder and not being held accountable. If charges are applied they don’t stay, if charges do stay they end up dismissed in court by a judge or a hung jury, and if the blood thirsty police are locked up they won’t do the full time.
There are only two classes that exist in the world today. There is the capitalist ruling class - those who own the means of production, the exploiters, bankers, top military brass, corporate CEO’s, like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Kochs. These crooks are protected by  the police who serve the capitalists and their property. And there is the working class - those who do not own the means of production, those who are exploited, make every single commodity in the world, and who are forced to fight in imperialist wars. Workers outnumber the capitalists 99 to one!
Under capitalism there is no justice for the working class. In the case of George Floyd the outcome will be the same even if the cops are locked up. We in the Progressive Labor Party say that true justice for the working class will only come from the overthrow of the capitalist system with communist revolution. The establishment of communism means a society with no profit, no exploitation, no social constructs like race, and racism, no sexism and the objectification of women, no homelessness or poverty, no private property, and of course no terrorists called the police. A worker-run society to benefit all! Join us!
*****
Author of Agent Sonya is anti-communist
Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre is reviewed in the March 17 issue of CHALLENGE. The review is highly favorable and describes the book's tale of the remarkable Ursula Kuczynski who was a master spy for the world communist movement and in particular for the Soviet Union from the 1930s until after WWII and a loyal communist until her death in the 1950s. She never lost her faith in communism and the future.
The reviewer does not comment that Macintyre is quite anti-communist and the reader is left with the impression that Sonya must have been a naïve "true believer." Obviously incredibly dedicated and incredibly smart, able to outwit the intelligence agencies of the U.S., UK, Japan, and Germany, she was anything but naïve.
The New York Times (an anticommunist mouthpiece itself) reviewer, Kati Marton, criticized  Macintyre for saying that Sonya served "one of history's great monsters and his heirs only in passing."
I think many CHALLENGE readers would find the author's views sufficiently troubling to stop reading. Nevertheless, if you can put aside these "passing" references in the book to the anti-Stalin, anti-Soviet paradigm, then you will enjoy the book and feel inspired by this heroic human being who was able to live a full life with a family and friends while doing everything she could to ensure a better future for workers everywhere.

*****