The historic 2010 Convention of Progressive Labor Party brought to life the slogan ‘one flag, one world, one Party.’ Over 500 members and supporters from at least 17 countries gathered to reaffirm our commitment to communist revolution.
From the first speaker, a young black woman worker explaining in sharp detail the current stage of inter-imperialist rivalry and the irrevocable move towards world capitalist war, to the closing session in which the new International Steering Committee of the
Party was overwhelmingly affirmed by the entire convention, this event marked a significant new stage in the life of the Party.
The opening speech set the tone for the rest of the event:
The phony “leftist” leaders of Latin America, Castro, Chavez, Lula, and Correa, were revealed to be tools of Chinese and Russian imperialism.
The imperialist powers were called out for the mass racist exploitation of Haitian workers that created the conditions for the 2010 earthquake disaster in which over 200,000 Haitians died.
The destruction of the social safety net in Europe was exposed.
The continuing humanitarian disaster in Africa that has resulted from 200 years of imperialism was linked to intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry.
The mass racist attacks on immigrant workers all over the world were exposed.
As these facts were laid bare the audience of hundreds roared and stomped their feet shouting, “Smash racist deportation, working people have no nation!” and “Racism means… We got to fight back! Imperialism means… We got to fight back!”
Despite the bosses’ attacks on the working class all over the world the speaker showed that workers are willing to fight back.
Thousands of workers, teachers, students and farm workers took to the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico in the mass rebellion of 2006.
Over 6,000 immigrant workers went on strike for eight months against racist French bosses this year.
Tens of thousands of striking garment workers, led by women workers, in Bangladesh shut down over 700 factories.
Striking Stella D’Oro workers from the Bronx fought for eleven months resisting police attacks and the sexist attacks of Stella bosses who sought to divide the workers.
Workers were overwhelmed with emotion, passion and dedication to the fight for a communist world as we left the opening session and gathered in workshops. There, we engaged in discussion over the line of Progressive Labor Party, and how to carry it out (see Our Fight, page 2). Comradely, but intense, struggle characterized the workshops. We discussed every aspect of our line from the fight against sexism to Democratic Centralism and the need for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
These discussions were anchored in
reports on the current practice of the Party and concluded with concrete plans for how to continue and improve the work as we move forward. Similarly, the Closing Plenary session, where resolutions were presented to affirm many aspects of our line, engendered additional sharp but comradely struggle.
This character of the Convention, in which we recognize that our unity about the need for communist revolution still contains within it differences about particular aspects of our line refutes the anti-communist myth that communists blindly obey their leaders. Only a communist party operating through democratic centralism could achieve this complex interplay of unity and disagreement.
These workshops were enormously enriched by the presence of comrades from around the world. Members from three African countries, throughout the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Mexico, Turkey, Greece, Arab and Jewish workers from Palestine and the U.S. were vocal participants in the workshops.
These comrades’ descriptions of the nightmarish conditions in which our working-class brothers and sisters are driven by the racist,
fascist needs of world imperialism sharpened the understanding of every member about the need to organize and build PLP.
Their descriptions of the struggles in which they are engaged and their progress in recruiting to the Party in all these
areas of the world made it clear that we have made a modest, but significant, leap forward in building a truly international Party.
In addition, leadership was embraced by a
collective of multi-racial young comrades — the next generation of Party leadership developing before our eyes at the convention. They worked for an entire year leading up to this momentous event. Collectively they organized every aspect of the convention from details like food and housing to pressing questions about our line.
Speaking in front of a large banner reading “Workers of the World Unite!” in twelve languages, one young Latino leader, a transit worker, gave a speech describing the history of communist struggle. “How have communists built and developed the communist movement?” he asked. “Through class struggle!” “What did the communists do when faced with the capitalists’ deadly attacks?”, he asked. They “toughened up.”
The lesson was clear, as the imperialist powers impose fascist repression on the working class while pulling each other closer and closer to World War III the Party has only one choice, to toughen up and struggle.
Another significant development was that the Party has achieved unity on the idea of working in mass
organizations. This was clearly reflected in the character of the work reported on and struggled over in the workshops. The convention reaffirmed the rich history of communist struggle by the millions of dedicated
comrades who have helped lead us to this historic point.
The final session ended with overwhelming agreement on the following three immediate plans for the Party:
International leadership for the international
Party of the working class organized into a unified body.
Multi-racial, international young leaders are the future and will continue to be developed, with the aid and experience of veteran comrades, in preparation for the transition of leadership to the next generation.
Conventions will be held every 5 years as the most collective method for assuring the growth of a principled communist Party organized under democratic centralism.
The Party convention reminded us that the dominance of imperialist capitalism means that the working class is in a period of “dark night” (see “Dark Night” at plp.org). The presence of so many people dedicated and ready to fight for communism means that this dark night will have its end. Yes, right now the capitalist class is strong and the Party is still small. But we will “toughen up” and we will advance our communist line in the class struggle and we will destroy this racist, imperialist capitalist system once and for all with communist revolution! Que viva, Que viva, Que viva communismo!