The Progressive Labor Party (originally the Progressive Labor Movement, sometimes still referred to simply as PL) is a transnational communist party based in the United States. It was formed in the fall of 1961 by members of the Communist Party USA who felt that the Soviet Union had betrayed communism and become revisionist and state capitalist. Founders also felt that the CPUSA was adopting unforgivably reformist positions, such as turning to electoral politics and hiding communist politics behind a veneer of reform-oriented causes. Image File history File links Progressive Labor Party logo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A transnational political party is a single political party with elected representatives or members in more than one country. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... There are multiple definitions of the term state capitalism. ... Reformism (also called revisionism or revisionist theory) is the belief that gradual changes in a society can ultimately change its fundamental structures. ... An election is a decision making process whereby people vote for preferred political candidates or parties to act as representatives in government. ...

Early History of the Party

As it broke away from its parent party, PL made it clear that it wanted to advocate communist revolution openly and aggressively among the working class. At first a very small grouping of several score based on the East Coast, it began to recruit more substantially when, inspired by the Cuban Revolution, many of its student-aged members travelled with dozens of other college students to Havana to break the travel ban. Defiance of the ban resulted in a congressional investigation before the House Un-American Activities Committee at which PL and other trip participants banged on desks and heckled HUAC, making most of the hearing unmanageable and setting an example for further protests that would ultimately destroy HUAC's ability to hold hearings. A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... 20 (twenty) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Havana (Spanish in full: La Habana, formerly named San Cristóbal de La Habana; UN/LOCODE: CU HAV) is the capital of Cuba and of one of the 14 provinces of Cuba, the one named Ciudad de La Habana), with a population of more than 2. ... United States embargo against Cuba (described in Cuba as el bloqueo, Spanish for the blockade) is an economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed on Cuba on February 7, 1962. ... HUAC hearings House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA) (1938–1975) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... A heckler is a person who shouts an uninvited comment, usually disparaging, at a performance or event. ...

The group also founded the campus-based May 2 Movement, which organized the first significant march against the Vietnam War in New York City in 1964. Once the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) came to the fore of the leftist political scene and began to grow into the primary vehicle for campus protest against the war, PL dissolved the M2M and entered SDS, working hard to attract supporters and forming party clubs on many campuses. Within a few years, PL had become the largest communist faction within SDS. The various anti-PL SDS factions subsequently developed their own interpretations of communist ideology and formed the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM), while PL organized its supporters into the Worker Student Alliance (WSA). Clashes between the RYM and PL/WSA would soon result in an irrevocable split of SDS into separate organizations. Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Nickname: Big Apple Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... SDS Button Logo The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was, historically, a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the countrys New Left. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... The Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) was the section of Students for a Democratic Society that opposed the Worker Student Alliance of the Progressive Labor Party. ... The Worker Student Alliance (WSA) in the United States was the section of Students for a Democratic Society led by the Progressive Labor Party. ...

One major cause of friction between PL's WSA and other factions within SDS was the party's emergent criticism of ethnic nationalism. After supporting 'progressive nationalism' during its first few years, in 1969 PL published a document claiming that all nationalism, even ethnic nationalism among oppressed minorities, was ultimately reactionary — that it was akin to identity politics at home, like with the Black Panther Party, and weakened the communist essence of national-liberation struggles abroad, like with the Vietnam War. Such a controversial view exacerbated already-dramatic fights in SDS and hastened the split. Ethnic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives political legitimacy from historical cultural or hereditary groupings (ethnicities); the underlying assumption is that ethnicities should be politically distinct. ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix Nationalism is an ideology [1] that holds that a nation is the fundamental unit for human social life, and takes precedence over any other social and political principles. ... Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet, generally used as a pejorative, originally applied in the context of the French Revolution to counter-revolutionaries who wished to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime. ... Identity politics is the political activity of various social movements for self-determination. ... Logo of the Black Panther Party. ... Viet Cong (NLF) flag The Viet Cong, also known as the National Front for the Liberation of Southern Vietnam (Vietnamese Mặt Trận Dân Tá»™c Giải Phóng Miền Nam), VC, or the National Liberation Front (NLF), was an insurgent (partisan) organization fighting the Republic...

Though the PL/WSA wing is generally considered to have won majority support at the 1969 SDS national convention in Chicago, it was not able to sustain SDS as a mass campus organization under its leadership for long, especially not amidst the general crisis and collapse of the rest of the New Left by 1975, which only accelerated as the 1970s drew to a close. According to this chronology, "the majority of the Boston chapter had left [PLP] in 1974" and in April 1977 "70% of the Bay Area chapter of PL" also left the organization, "just about the only remaining one with significant mass work" (O’Brien, Five Retreats). Meanwhile, some of the party's more influential members drifted away, including Bill Epton, PL's vice chairman and Harlem branch leader. As tensions increased between sectors of the New Left during the later years of the Civil Rights Movement, PL's campus members and supporters were sometimes known to engage in particularly heated shouting matches and even occasional mutually-provoked fistfights with members of rival groups like the Weathermen and the Young Lords. But former members and other party critics around the organization at that time generally maintain that in its early years and at least through the early 1970s the PLP was not especially authoritarian in its internal functioning and did not attempt to overly control the lives of its members, though some say that later, the degree of open discussion and dissent in the party declined somewhat. Overall the party never developed a reputation among activists or the general public as a political cult, and it has not been accused of "brainwashing" anyone. 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... The New Left is a term used in political discourse to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Boston is a town and small port c. ... USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Bill Epton in a crowd William Leo Epton Jr. ... Harlem is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, long known as a major black cultural and business center. ... Historically, the civil rights movement was a concentrated period of time around the world of approximately one generation (1960-1980) wherein there was much worldwide civil unrest and popular rebellion. ... John Jacobs and Terry Robbins at the Days of Rage, Chicago, October 1969 (Photo credit: David Fenton; publicity photo for film Weather Underground) Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization, was a U.S. Radical Left organization consisting of splintered-off members and leaders of... The Young Lords (later Young Lords Organization, then Young Lords Party) was a Puerto Rican group in several United States cities, notably New York City and Chicago. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The term authoritarian is used to describe an organization or a state which enforces strong and sometimes oppressive measures against the population, generally without attempts at gaining the consent of the population. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as involvement in action to bring about change, be it social, political, environmental, or other change. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Brainwashing, also known as thought reform or re-education, is the application of coercive techniques to change the beliefs or behavior of one or more people usually for political or religious purposes. ...

Ideologically, while in the 1960s the party seemed at first to be, and was widely regarded as, the torch-bearer of Maoism within SDS, its leaders had never really seen themselves as followers of Mao Tse-Tung; indeed, even then, PL's political line differed sharply from Maoism on fundamental points. It was the subsidized fraternal party to China for a while, but broke that relationship in 1967 and reacted particularly harshly to the news of Mao meeting with Nixon in 1972, denouncing Mao as a revisionist. Claims to Maoism in the United States thereafter passed to other groups, most notably the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng SÄ«xiÇŽng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of the Chinese communist Mao Zedong. ... Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893—September 9, 1976) was the chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1935 until his death. ... Fraternal Party: Literally, brother party. Refers to a political party officially affiliated with another, often larger and/or international, political party or governmental party. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Revisionism is a word which has several meanings. ... The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP, USA), known originally as the Revolutionary Union, is a revolutionary Maoist organization that was formed in 1975. ...

Changes in Thought, Direction, and Approach

In the early 1980s PL went beyond opposing nationalism and began to more aggressively develop new political positions that were radically different from any other known version of Marxism-Leninism. Chief among these was the argument that socialism, the accepted transition-phase between capitalism and communism in Marxist theory, was the primary reason behind the reversal of workers' power in Russia and China, and that it should be abandoned. While seeming excessively radical to some, this position flowed logically from the party's prior rejection of Mao's concept of New Democracy, dismissed as a reactionary "three-stage theory" of first New Democracy, then socialism, then communism. With PL's subsequent rejection of the socialist stage as equally unnecessary and reactionary, PL's proletarian struggle was reframed as a "fight directly for communism" wherein these intermediate stages would be shunned in favor of widespread understanding and acceptance of fully communist ideology among the masses. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution and other trade of goods and services, for profit in a competitive free market. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... For other uses of the term, including political parties with the name New Democracy, see New Democracy (disambiguation). ...

To PL, such a strategy of mass participation in communist politics necessitates that current party members would build true, deep, honest friendships with workers, rather than viewing such workers simply as potential recruits. In this vein, PLP advocates "basebuilding," meaning that members should get stable jobs that keep them in touch with the working class, and should enjoy everyday lives while gradually attempting to win their co-workers, friends and family to respect and join the party. PL says it wants to move from the classic "cadre" conception of a communist party to that of a "mass party", meaning that the party should not be an elite of "professional revolutionaries" but should be composed of, by, and for the whole working class, where everyone has full knowledge and appreciation of communist principles and action so that they do not allow the party structure to become corrupt. Recruit (from the French recrue, from the verb recroître to grow again, i. ... For other uses of the term, see Cadre (disambiguation). ... Professional revolutionaries (also cadre) is in origin a Leninist term used to describe a body of devoted communists who spend the great majority (or all) of their time organizing their party toward proletarian revolution. ...

Members are cautioned not to necessarily expect revolution in their lifetimes, but to build for it anyway. The party still sees the need for a Red Army and an armed populace to defend the communist society they envision from attack by resurgent ruling classes, and they utilize the term "dictatorship of the proletariat" to refer to this necessity; however, PL's usage of the term today differs starkly from usage by other communist groups, who generally consider the dictatorship of the proletariat to be synonymous with the classic conception of socialism. The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (in Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya), the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... Red Guards refer to socialist or communist militia formed to instigate, support, or defend communist revolutions. ... The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that societys political policy. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a...

Stemming from these steep changes in political line is PL's current belief in a complete and total abolition of money and the wage system immediately upon the seizure of state power by the working class. Members argue that differences in wages and retention of a certain amount of competitiveness and elitism under socialism was what led it to turn back into capitalism with time. They see the immediate abolition of money, wages, and other market society elements as an approach that would more easily enable workers to adopt a sense of communist culture, ethics, and morality. An example of Money. ... A wage is the amount of money paid for some specified quantity of labour. ... In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. ... This page refers to the econometric term For a general article see Competition Competitiveness is a comparative measure of the ability and performance of a firm or sub-sector to sell and produce/supply goods and/or services in a given market. ... Elitism is a belief or attitude that an elite — a selected group of persons whose personal abilities, specialized training or other attributes place them at the top of any field (see below) — are the people whose views on a matter are to be taken most seriously, or who are alone... Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution and other trade of goods and services, for profit in a competitive free market. ... Market Society can refer to either the free-market style of capitalism first popularized by Adam Smith, or (to a lesser extent) can also refer to government-instituted and/or controlled forms of the market, commonly called State capitalism. ...

PL fiercely opposes the Theory of Productive Forces espoused by past communists, which the party points out placed more emphasis on achieving "abundance" in socialist societies than it did on actually winning the working class to communist ideology and practice, particularly in the cases of the Great Leap Forward and the Five Year Plans. PL argues that communism should have been the 'glue' that held these societies together, rather than abundance. In its piece Communist Economics, Communist Power (1982), the party states: The term Theory of Productive Forces should not be confused with the Marxist analysis of productive forces that is a cornerstone of Marxist theory. ... Abundance is the state in which there is more than enough. ... Propaganda poster of the Great Leap Forward. ... Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the USSR or Piatiletkas (пятилетка) were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. ...

Who is to say what "abundance" really is? Many working-class people in the U.S. probably live at a higher standard of living than Marx might have predicted -- better health care, longer life span, shorter workday, indoor plumbing, electricity, cars: etc. All of those material things constitute "abundance" on one level, yet we know that it is not enough, because we know of the potential for a better world. We also know that most of the world doesn't even have a fraction of what many U.S. workers have. But even if the whole world lived at this relatively "abundant" level, we would still be fighting to smash the system. The "abundance" by itself does not, and cannot, eliminate selfishness and class divisions.

—link

PL also espouses a unique approach to the issue of the Communist International, saying that instead of separate communist parties in each country, the revolutionary organization should be one monolithic, multiracial, cross-cultural PLP, with branches and collectives all over the globe. Its goal is to eventually win the majority of the world's working class—hundreds of millions and even billions of people—to join this international party. In this view can be seen the party's virulent rejection of united front and popular front strategies long used by most communists as a route to revolution, both of which members say has failed despite all valiant attempts by forces genuinely fighting for communism. They allege that such forces' alliances with "lesser-evil" bosses and/or fake-left groups for short-term gains, cited by the Spanish Civil War, the assassination of Salvador Allende, and other examples, has been one of the main weaknesses of the old communist movement. Because of this, PL prefers to steadily strengthen its own political standing and recruitment via its basebuilding strategy, rather than focus energy on participation in (or creation of) leftist coalitions, as it sees most other groups claiming Marxism doing. The first edition of Communist International, journal of the Comintern published in Moscow and Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in May 1919. ... In Leninist bogus, a united front is a coalition of Clinton likeleft-wing working class forces which put forward a common set of demands and share a common plan of action, but which do not subordinate themselves to the front, retaining their abilities for independent political action and continuing to... Popular Fronts comprise broad coalitions of political and other groups, often made up of oppositioners or left wingers, and often united against particularly stringent circumstances. ... The lesser of two evils principle was a Cold War-era foreign policy principle used by the United States and to a lesser extent, several other countries. ... Combatants Spanish Republic CNT-FAI UGT POUM Soviet Union International Brigades Spanish State Falangists Carlists Fascist Italy Nazi Germany Commanders Manuel Azaña Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Francisco Franco Casualties Civilians killed/wounded = hundreds of thousands The Spanish Civil War, which lasted from July 17, 1936 to April... Salvador Isabelino del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Allende Gossens[1] (July 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973) was President of Chile from November 1970 until his removal from power and death on September 11, 1973. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... A Coalition is an alliance between entities, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest. ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ...

The PLP believes that the primary contradiction in the world today is—unfortunately—between various groups of competing imperialists for world domination, or "inter-imperialist rivalry," rather than between workers and bosses, or (as Maoists claim) between imperialism and national-liberation movements. It recognizes the weakness of the Radical Left at the present stage in history and notes that nationalism has presently replaced communism as the driving force in the worldwide popular left. But the PLP simultaneously sees an inexorable economic and political decline of the U.S. versus other capitalist powers, like China and the E.U., and dwindling of necessary imperial resources around the world like oil. The party thinks that cutthroat competition over such resources will inevitably lead to a third world war. They assert that such a war, while it will bring much suffering and death for workers, will also be the catalyst for a great new communist revolution, provided enough people are won to the party's ideas before and during such a conflict. Broadly speaking, a contradiction is an incompatibility between two or more statements, ideas, or actions. ... A cartoon portraying the British Empire as an octopus, reaching into foreign lands Imperialism is a policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛澤東思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), also called Marxism-Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM), is a variant of communism derived from the teachings of Mao Zedong (1893&#8211... National Liberation Front is a common name for guerrilla organisations fighting to free their country from foreign rule, or at least claiming to be such an organisation. ... Since the early 20th century, Radical Left has been used as an umbrella term to describe those on the political left who adhere explicitly and openly to revolutionary socialism, communism, or anarchism. ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix Nationalism is an ideology [1] that holds that a nation is the fundamental unit for human social life, and takes precedence over any other social and political principles. ... United States is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... The constitutional treaty as signed in Rome on 29 October 2004 by representatives from all EU Member States The European Union (EU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 25 democratic member states. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ...

The party operates on the standard Leninist principle of democratic centralism; it has no known history of harassing or threatening ex-members. Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ...

PL members are of the opinion that what they term Stalin's "errors," both politically and economically, extend back to Lenin's New Economic Policy and were ultimately endemic to the Soviet Union's entire history — i.e., the history of socialism and its concessions to capitalism, which in PL's view cannot lead to communism. Therefore, they say, regardless of the leader in question, and regardless of whether or not s/he made good political advances in the country or towards the communist movement as a whole (which they believe Stalin did, especially against the Nazis), mistakes were made that were common to all of those leaders, because the faulty theory of socialism was common to all of them. PL attacks the cult of personality and any "Great Leader" status as anti-working class, and pledges that the elimination of the socialist stage, the retention of the armed dictatorship of the working class to defend against a comeback by the ruling classes, and "confidence in the working class" from the beginning that they can fully understand and utilize openly communist ideas collectively, without having to look to a great figure (or figures) for guidance, will signal much deeper and more profound strides towards communism than socialism could ever have hoped to achieve. Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a... The New Economic Policy (NEP; in Russian Новая экономическая политика - Novaya Ekonomicheskaiya Politika or НЭП) was officially decided in the course of the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Billboard of Joseph Stalin. ... The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that societys political policy. ...

Like all groups descended from Maoism, however, PL supports a positive interpretation of Stalin's legacy, and members expressly deny the view of him by mainstream scholars as mass murderer and tyrant, claiming that his leadership helped defeat fascism, that the numbers killed by the policies in his era were far fewer than the many millions widely accepted, and that the rest resulted from a combination of the Russian Civil War, famine, and World War II. Typically, PL also defends killings unrelated to these factors as basically justified to protect the Soviet Union's proletarian dictatorship against spies, Fifth column elements, counterrevolutionaries, and other class enemies. Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of the Chinese communist Mao Zedong. ... Fascism is a radical political ideology that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) German Empire? White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Commanders Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel The Russian Civil War was fought from 1917 to 1922. ... A famine is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country is so undernourished that death by starvation or other related diseases becomes increasingly common. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... Proletarian dictatorship (also called workers dictatorship) means the political rule of the working class over society, rather than the ruling class power of the wealthy exercised around the world today under various manifestations of capitalism. ... Spies may refer to: Spies (Coldplay), a song by the rock group Coldplay. ... A fifth column is a group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group to which it is expected to be loyal, such as a nation. ... A counterrevolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part. ...

Present-Day Activities

May Day 2006

PLP says it was decisive in breaking apart the briefly-influential mass anti-desegregation busing group "Restore Our Alienated Rights" (ROAR) in Boston in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s its "academic" target was Arthur Jensen, and through the 1990s it continued in that vein by repeatedly and forcefully disrupting speakers and conferences promoting scientific racism, which it saw as coming back into vogue at that time with books like The Bell Curve. Image File history File linksMetadata Mayday06. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Mayday06. ... Desegregation busing, referred to as forced busing by opponents to desegregated schools in some areas, is the practice of remedying past racial discrimination in American public schools by busing children to specific schools in an effort to counteract discriminatory school construction and district assignments. ... Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) was an organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts circa 1974, in opposition to Federal Judge Arthur J. Garritys court order requiring the city of Boston to implement desegregation busing in order to eliminate de facto racial segregation in its public schools. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub of the Universe (The State House, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, is the hub of the Solar System), Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution Location in Massachusetts Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Arthur Jensen Arthur Jensen is a Professor Emeritus of educational psychology at University of California, Berkeley. ... See also 1990s, the band The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, sometimes informally including popular culture from the very late 1980s and from 2000 and beyond. ... Scientific racism is racist propaganda disguised as science. ... The Bell Curve is a controversial, best-selling 1994 book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray exploring the role of intelligence in American life. ...

Today, at least in the United States, the party is most widely known for its confrontational and often violent stance of militant anti-fascism against groups like the Klan and the Nazi movements. The organization is also active in anti-police brutality work, public health, public schools, and various types of basic industry. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 in Washington, D.C. has an open PLP member as its president. Militant anti-fascism is a form of anti-fascism that advocates the use of violence against fascism, opposes depending on the state to combat fascism, and often has an orientation to working class politics. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ... Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers. ... Public health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. ... // Public education is education mandated for the children of the general public by the government, whether national, regional, or local, provided by an institution of civil government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by taxes. ... The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada, representing over 180,000 workers in the transit system and other industries. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1861-1865) The majority of this article is about heads of states. ...

In June 2005, along with other anti-racist activists, several PL members were injured and arrested by police in New Jersey while protesting the Minutemen. In July, four more PL members were arrested in Farmingville, NY opposing Minuteman sympathizers who had attacked immigrant laborers after promising them work. On December 14, 2005, the Bridgewater defendants all had their misdemeanor charges dismissed, found only in violation of a municipal ordinance for "unreasonable loudness in public," and its defense committee says they may now pursue a civil suit against the police for use of excessive force, since officers had reportedly fractured an elderly militant anti-racist's shoulder cuff during the scuffle with the Minutemen. Meanwhile, in California, several PLers face legal charges related to a counter-demonstration against the Minuteman sympathizers "Save Our State" (SOS). 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in June June 27: Shelby Foote June 27: John T. Walton June 26: Richard Whiteley June 25: John Fiedler June 25: Chet Helms June 24: Paul Winchell June 21: Jaime Cardinal Sin June 20: Jack Kilby... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Area  Ranked 47th  - Total 8,729 sq mi (22,608 km²)  - Width 70 miles (110 km)  - Length 150 miles (240 km)  - % water 14. ... The Minuteman Project Civil Defense Corps was started in April 2005 by a group of American citizens to deter illegal crossings of the United States–Mexico border. ... Ongoing events • 2005 Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes • 2005 Maharashtra floods • 2005 Gujarat Flood • Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan • Fuel prices • Gomery Comm. ... Farmingville is a hamlet (and census-designated place) located in Suffolk County, New York. ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bridgewater is a town located in Oneida County, New York, USA. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,671. ... A misdemeanors (or misdemeanour), in many common law legal systems, is a lesser criminal act. ... Ordinance can mean: A law made by a non-sovereign body such as a city council or a colony. ... Noise pollution is unwanted human-created sound that disrupts the environment. ... A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in order to recover a right, obtain damages for an injury, obtain an injunction to prevent an injury, or obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Save Our State logo Save Our State redirects here. ...

In September 2005, PL released its immediate reaction to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. There is also a November 2005 piece dealing with the 2005 civil unrest in France. In December, the party issued a call to Katrina demonstrators in New Orleans. Once the 2005 transit strike in New York started, the party issued a leaflet for that, as well, with several members subsequently attending picket lines in solidarity with the striking workers. When the Sago mine collapsed, PL released this response and started planning a demonstration. And at the 2006 United States immigration reform protests, PL released this analysis. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in September September 28 : Constance Baker Motley September 25 : M. Scott Peck September 25 : Don Adams September 20 : Simon Wiesenthal September 14 : Robert Wise September 10 : Hermann Bondi September 8 : Donald Horne September 7 : Moussa Arafat... Lowest pressure 902 mbar (hPa; 26. ... A torched car in Strasbourg, 5 November. ... December 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 December 2005 (Saturday) 25-year-old Scottish human rights worker Kate Burton and her parents are freed unharmed in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian gunmen who kidnapped them two days earlier. ... A closed entrance to 45th Street station on the R Line in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. ... Wikinews has three articles on the accident: Coal miners trapped in West Virginia mine 13 coal miners trapped in West Virginia mine 12 coal miners are found dead, 1 in critical condition, in West Virginia mine The Sago Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion on January 2, 2006 in... Demonstrators march in the street while protesting the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on April 16, 2005. ... Thousands gather in favor of rights largely for illegal aliens in Nashville, Tennessee on March 29, 2006. ...

In line with its anti-nationalist politics, while firmly denouncing the "fascist" policies of the State of Israel, PLP also criticizes both the Palestinian intifada and the Iraqi insurgency because of what it sees as these movements' reactionary nature; that the most they will do is put another capitalist government in power and establish new domination by local bosses, and dependency on non-US imperialists such as the European Union. The PLP upholds a purist vision of a mass-based communism that it claims was the true spirit of the Cultural Revolution sabotaged by Mao's cult of personality and reactionary elements within the CPC, as well as Mao's own political weaknesses. It believes it "stands on the shoulders of giants" but can also learn a lot from their mistakes, "to get it right the next time." Although it is primarily based in the United States, the PLP has small sections in various countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Pakistan. Anti-nationalism is the idea that nationalism is dangerous in one form or another, and sometimes, though less often, the idea that all nationalism is completely dangerous and wrong. ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Intifada (also Intefadah or Intifadah; from shaking off) is an Arabic term for uprising. It came into common usage in English as the popularised name for two recent Palestinian campaigns directed at ending the Israeli military occupation. ... Iraqi militants celebrating orders being given to the surrounding Coalition forces to stand down, Fallujah, May 1 2004. ... A purist is one who desires that a particular item remain true to its essence and free from adulterating or diluting influences. ... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Wúchǎn Jiējí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the People... Billboard of Joseph Stalin. ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name) also known as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (Simplified Chinese: 中国共产党; Traditional Chinese: 中國共産黨; Pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

The party makes a point of celebrating May Day with public marches every year (on the Saturday closest to May 1), usually in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. It publishes a biweekly newspaper, Challenge, and its Spanish counterpart Desafío, as well as an annual theoretical magazine, The Communist. May Day refers to any of several holidays celebrated on May 1 or in the beginning of May. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... Nickname: Big Apple Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Area    - City 1,290. ...

External links

• Website of the Progressive Labor Party
• Communist Music Recorded by PLP
• Updated Immigrants' Rights Rallies Leaflet
• Fight The Wage-Cut Contract! New York City Transit Contract Rejection Leaflet
• Wanted For Murder: Billionaire Boss Wilbur Ross. Sago Mine Disaster Leaflet
• Support the Strikers! New York City Transit Strike Leaflet
• Hurricane Katrina shows: Racist Profit System Attacks All Workers!
• PL pamphlet: Smash Racism With Communist Revolution
• For Victims of Katrina: The Real Culprits Are Racism and Capitalism
• History of the Progressive Labor Party and Students for a Democratic Society, 1966-1974
• Revolutionaries Must Fight Nationalism (1969)
• Ludo Martens: Another view of Stalin online book

Further reading

• Benin, Leigh David. A Red Thread In Garment: Progressive Labor And New York City’s Industrial Heartland In The 1960s And 1970s. Ph.D. diss. New York University, 1997.
• Benin, Leigh David. The New Labor Radicalism and New York City's Garment Industry : Progressive Labor Insurgents During the 1960s. Garland Studies in the History of American Labor Series. 330 pages. Garland Publishing. November, 1999. ISBN 0-8153-3385-4.
• SDS: The Last Hurrah (document 4 of 5 in series) chronicles the last tumultuous days of the original Students for a Democratic Society and the rise of the Revolutionary Youth Movement and PL's Worker Student Alliance as the two principal SDS factions. Claimed to have been written by an undercover federal agent at the proceedings.
• Sumner, D.S. and R.S. Butler (Jim Dann and Hari Dillon). The Five Retreats: A History of the Failure of the Progressive Labor Party. Reconstruction Press, 1977. ISBN (????)
• The PLP-LP: Power to the Working Class. Review of PLP album of contemporary revolutionary songs. Published on Thursday, April 13, 1972. The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved October 8, 2005.
• Waters, Mary-Alice. Maoism in the U.S.: A Critical History of the Progressive Labor Party. Young Socialist Alliance, New York, 1969.

The Harvard Crimson, of Harvard University, is the United States oldest continuously published daily college newspaper. ... The Young Socialist Alliance, the primary beliefs of which were directly related to the socio-political theories of Leon Trotsky and the internationalization of the Socialist Movement, played a major role in the anti-war campaigns of the 1960s, relying on an extensive network of university-based organizations throughout the...

Historic PLP Publications

• Ault, Paul, Bill Epton, et al. eds. Progressive Labor vol. 3, no. 4, March 1964. Progressive Labor Movement. Brooklyn, NY. 1964.
• Epton, Bill. The Black Liberation Struggle (Within The Current World Struggle). Speech at Old Westbury College, Feb. 26, 1976. 26 pages. Harlem: Black Liberation Press, 1976. Stapled paperback, cover illustrated by Tom Feelings.
• Epton, Bill. We accuse; Bill Epton speaks to the court. Progressive Labor Party, New York. 1966.
• Harlem Defense Council. Police Terror In Harlem. NY: Harlem Defense Council, nd [1964?]. 12 pages. Stapled paperback pamphlet. Photos.
• [Nakashima, Wendy]. Organize! Use Wendy Nakashima's campaign for assembly (69 a.d.) to fight back!. Progressive Labor Party, New York. [1966].
• Progressive Labor Movement. Road to revolution: the outlook of the Progressive Labor Movement. PLM, Brooklyn. 1964.
• Progressive Labor Party. Notes on black liberation. Black Liberation Commission. Progressive Labor Party, New York. 1965.
• Progressive Labor Party. ILWU report. Trade Union Commission of the Progressive Labor Party, Berkeley. [1965].
• Progressive Labor Party. Smash the bosses' armed forces. A fighting program for GIs. Defeat racism and anti-Communism -- build GI-Worker Alliance -- Smash the bosses' use of the Army against workers at home and abroad. Progressive Labor Party, Brooklyn, NY. [1969?].
• Progressive Labor Party. Nixon mines North Vietnam ports, threatens world nuclear war. Workers and students must say NO with a GENERAL STRIKE!!. Progress Labor Party, Boston. [circa 1969-71].
• Progressive Labor Party. PL red line newsletter. vol. 1, no. 4. Campus Progressive Labor Party, [Berkeley, CA]. [1971?].
• Progressive Labor Party. Revolution Today, USA: A look at the Progressive Labor Movement and the Progressive Labor Party. Exposition Press, New York, 1970.