Fight for Working-Class Culture

NEW YORK CITY — In early February, while the sky was bleak and the air cold, some 60 workers and youth assembled to participate in the development of working-class culture. The work of the last three years culminated in the gathering of six seminal groups to explore creating different forms of working-class art — video, script writing, acting, music, poster design and poetry.
An initial plenary session discussed basic ideas over breakfast after which people moved to their chosen areas of interest. Expectations pervaded.  Most of the six leaders wondered if this first exploratory session could create groups from which some working-class communist forms could be developed.
Of course, working-class art in its many forms have already been produced during the period when working-class influence was ascending and when our class was under threat. Communists have always fought to try to galvanize art, much as sometimes they’re galvanized by the singing of the working-class communist anthem, “The Internationale.”
Both the leaders and the groups’ members had undergone uneven development in their cultural interests and experiences, leading to some struggle for basic understanding. Actually, the video that was made during the day of the different sessions seemed to draw all the groups together. The video group interviewed individuals about what they were creating.
There were people from many different working-class backgrounds. Multi-racial interaction and work led to growing relationships and a very professional attitude for what was being created that day. In one class, a baby sat on her mother’s lap, seeming to take part in the workshop with mama. This was fun for the group and helped create a family feeling. Several workshop participants now want to organize others to produce communist culture. 
Poetry and Hip-Hop plumbed political commitment and revolutionary culture in the life of working people. As one young man said, “Working-class culture is powerful.”
The poster art session compared a poster for a capitalist product and one for Bolshevik ideas with their own creation depicting demonstrations and life. The layout was produced collectively which excited the participants.
One question asked by the creators of the video was, “What music or culture inspired you?”  In the music session, a large group worked on old songs and a new song which is currently evolving.
At the end of the afternoon all groups gathered together with each one performing or displaying a small piece of what they had been creating and learning. It was a wonderful kaleidoscope of words, songs, pictures and acting. The result almost left one breathless. Creating working-class art always has a future, but now we’re part of that. See working-class culture this May Day!