The Partisan is publishing brief reports on the work of the revolutionary movement in the United States as part of our column Our Movement In Review. Because it would be impractical and overwhelming to cover every single thing being done nationally by comrades in a month, due to the number of areas and organizations involved, we will be highlighting only a select few illustrative campaigns and reports that help represent the powerful and growing wave of revolutionary mass work and class struggle being carried in cities and towns around the country. As always, if you have any suggestions, questions, or criticisms please reach out to us at classpartisan@proton.me!
Mass Organizations Push For National Liberation
The national question remains one of the most important political questions facing the revolutionary movement in the US today. The United States is a prison house of nations, with many various oppressed nations and national minorities within its borders. The struggle for the liberation of the working class will inevitably be one of a multinational working class, and the process of Socialist Revolution in our country will require class-conscious leadership in the struggle for self-determination for all oppressed nations in the US today. The Black (or New Afrikan) Nation, in the US southeast, and the Puerto Rican Nation have both struggled for self-determination for centuries, and it is imperative that revolutionaries in the US push to grow the class-conscious movement within these particular struggles.
Throughout the month of August, revolutionary activists across the United States celebrated Black August, an important holiday for the Black Liberation movement that commemorates the Black/New Afrikan political prisoners and important events and rebellions in the long struggle for national liberation.
In Chicago, People’s Defense Chicago, the Borikén Liberation Front, and Toreador hosted a Black August event in the South side neighborhood of Pilsen on August 30 to discuss the tasks of the Black National Movement and enjoy live music and visual art by local Black artists. Attendees read the 1930 Communist International (Comintern) Resolution on the Negro Question in the United States and discussed how to develop the Black Liberation Movement today. Participants drew connections between the Comintern’s understanding of Black national oppression in the 1930s, and the continuation of this social system in the US today. Some topics discussed at the event included the county redistricting in the South following Reconstruction to prevent strong Black political influence in any one county, the school-to-prison pipeline, the modern militarized police, and prison slavery. Organizers with People’s Defense Chicago pointed out a common theme among these examples which largely centered around mass incarceration and police terror in Black neighborhoods. Following this discussion, local Black artists Sulfffffur, Chad Garten, and Princess Khai performed music and led a celebration of revolutionary Black culture.
In Charlotte, People’s Defense Charlotte organized three events to commemorate Black August. Black August initially commemorated the deaths of Jonathan and George Jackson in 1970 and 1971 at the San Quentin State Prison. It is a month where participants study the ideology of Black liberation, fast from food, physically train, and fight in the political struggle. The first event was a presentation on political prisoners and a prisoner letter writing event. The second event was a screening of the film Attica, and the third event was a community potluck. Over the course of the month of August, People’s Defense Charlotte put the principles of Black August into practice and highlighted the importance of the fact that the struggle for land and liberation starts in apartment complexes and neighborhoods.
August was also marked by nationwide Puerto Rican independence marches. On August 31, 75 different Puerto Rican organizations across the United States and the Puerto Rican archipelago marched in unison to declare their devotion to the end of the continued colonization of Puerto Rico. “For over 127 years, the United States has kept Puerto Rico, both the archipelago and the diaspora, in colonial chains.” (Solidarity Letter for the 2025 March for Puerto Rican Independence) In Chicago, Puerto Rican liberation organization Borikén Liberation Front (BLF), hosted their own march on North Avenue in the Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park. The march was from North Avenue and N Humboldt Blvd to the long standing National Guard Building, which has served as a reminder of the dual occupation of Puerto Ricans on the island and also within their diasporic neighborhoods in the United States. “From Chicago to Puerto Rico: No Military Occupations!” (from Borikén Liberation Front Instagram)
Over 2025 ICE has been the cause of outrage among the Latin American community in the US. Additionally, President Trump recently threatened to deploy the National Guard, saying “We’ll do the same thing in Chicago.” Borikén Liberation Front recognizes the inevitability of increased militarization within Chicago, at a time when the masses are already actively targeted as oppressed minorities. Puerto Ricans are being murdered at the hands of the police across the nation, in Florida (Derik Rodriguez, 31), in Chicago (Nate Fejerang, 19), and Idaho (Victor Perez, 17).
Around 50 people were organized for the Borikén Liberation Front’s Chicago March for Independence. The crowd held signs with slogans ranging from, “FREE THE LAND” to “JUSTICE 4 NATE!” to “From Puerto Rico to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime.” Various Puerto Rican independence flags could be seen, the Grito De Lares Flag for example and the New Afrikan flag. Posters of the late founder of the Young Lords Organization, Cha Cha Jimenez and the late co-founder of Los Machateros, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, were present as well. Both figures served to lead the fight for Puerto Rican nationhood. Present at the march were organizations allied in BLF’s struggle, members from both the Chicago chapter of People’s Defense Committee (PDC) and Juventud Unida por la Independencia (JUPI) were in attendance and respectively both gave their own speeches. Borikén Liberation Front finished the march with their own speeches, calling an end to violence against Puerto Rican youth, an end to the colonial situation of Puerto Rico, while commemorating the martyrs of the struggle for self determination in Puerto Rico.
Independent Unions Form Shop Committees
Through the work and collaboration of local leaders and activists with New Labor Organizing Committee (NLOC)-affiliated organizations and organizers, during the month of August the task of implementing robust shop committee systems was taken up in two independent unions. Independent, class-conscious, and militant shop committees are one of the main pillars that industrial unionist organizations like NLOC seek to organize in all workplaces and sectors across the country.
In Chicago, this August an independent union of educational contract workers formed a shop committee system through the united work of the union with new Chicago Workers’ Circle (CWC) and NLOC leaders. This coincided also with the Chicago Workers’ Circle first public meeting on Monday, September 1st, in Chicago’s South Side. At the meeting attendees learned about the basic strategy and tactics for implementing New Labor politics in the workplace. Attendees discussed what a shop committee is and how to form one, and discussed the importance of a shop paper as a collective organizer in the workplace. Attendees discussed the weaknesses of the NLRB system of labor management and how shop committees and shop papers can help to build industrial unity.
The Chicago Workers’ Circle also shared with attendees the current campaigns it is engaged in. As an affiliate to the NLOC, the CWC seeks to organize the unorganized and intervene on the side of workers when and where possible. In addition to the union effort among the educational workers, the CWC also has ties to workers at a food production factory in the suburbs where a worker was recently injured as a result of production line speedups which has led to a disregard for following proper safety protocols. The CWC is also beginning a campaign to support service-sector workers who face sexual harassment from their managers and superiors, a common issue faced by women and LGBT wage-workers in restaurants and bars.
The Chicago Workers’ Circle can be reached by email at chicagoworkerscircle@proton.me.
Like in Chicago, in Washtenaw county, during the months of July and August RSU activists at the University of Michigan collaborated with organizers from NLOC to re-organize and re-mobilize the university’s independent union of Resident Assistants. With a contract fight looming, the activists have begun implementing a shop committee system in the dorms and organizing the RAs for their demands in collaboration with the new union leadership.
The dorm committee system is being implemented by the new leadership after intense repression this spring against revolutionary and progressive students at the university, including the dismissal of RAs for political motivations and the direct intervention of federal agents among the militant students. The grievances of the RAs include a lack of pay, repressive and unjust disciplinary measures, and attacks on the democratic rights of students carried out through new reactionary policy changes by the university.
Activists Take Action Against Police Brutality
On August 22, the Justice for Nate Coalition mobilized to a baseball game held in a suburb of Chicago between the so-called Chicago Police Knights and the Chicago Fire Bravest baseball clubs. Police officer Andrew Paulaukas, who tacked Nate Fejerang the night he was murdered, was participating as a player in this event. While Fejerang’s family had been assured that Paulaukas would be removed from the game, this turned out to be a lie. Activists from Borikén Liberation Front, People’s Defense Chicago, and the La Clark Youth League – Revolutionary Students Union demanded that he be removed from the baseball game, that the bodycam footage be released in full, and that Oscar Asilis be charged and arrested for murder. Read more about this action and the struggle for justice in the full article by Justice for Nate Coalition.
On August 9, Denton local Jon Ruff was killed in broad daylight. Ruff’s assailant pulled a gun on him and shot him four times, a murder for which this assailant remains unnamed. The Denton police, rather than investigate a blatant murder, have yet to make any response. In response, the masses of Denton rallied on August 17 for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Ruff. Opening remarks were made by the Denton Student Union, after which speakers from across the community recounted their memories of Jon. “The media has it wrong,” one man said to an organizer. The crowd ended the speeches by chanting “Justice for Jon!” Participants wrote messages and slogans in honor of Ruff and in support of the struggles of the homeless.
Both of these actions in response to police violence come during a wave of reactionary violence against the people that needs to be combated. As US society increasingly militarizes, it becomes ever clear that the police do not exist to protect the masses, but rather to terrorize the masses and protect the ruling class. It is ever more necessary to build up class-conscious organizations of the masses to wage real political struggle against oppression and exploitation in all sectors of life, to seize political Power for working people everywhere.
