We are marching in a compact group along a steep and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have…chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh!...[L]et go of our hands…[F]or we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!
— Vladimir Lenin, What Is To Be Done?
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In 1901, when Lenin wrote these words, the Bolsheviks were a small communist party struggling to earn the leadership of the Russian working class. Revolution seemed a long way off. But between 1905 and 1914, a massive strike wave in Russia was followed by a ruling-class crackdown and then a global, inter-imperialist conflict: World War I. By 1917, these upheavals had set the stage for the world’s first successful communist revolution. The revolution couldn’t happen until conditions matured—but at the same time, the Bolsheviks had to be ready.
As we assess the developments of 2015 and look forward to 2016 and beyond, the task of Progressive Labor Party is to emulate the Bolsheviks. Even as we participate in reform battles, we must never retreat into “the marsh” of reformism or passivity. Our historical task is to build a mass working-class party to smash capitalism, seize state power, and establish a communist dictatorship of the working class—a society run by workers to meet workers’ needs.
Worldwide, 2015 saw a sharpening of the kind of Great Power rivalries that sparked World War I and World War II. Talk of a third world war is in the air. The Russian bosses became more aggressive, projecting military power from the Ukraine to Syria. China expanded its imperialist base in the South China Sea while openly challenging U.S. hegemony in global financial markets with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The U.S. ruling class has countered with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a “free trade” agreement designed to constrain China.
In the Middle East, in an effort to consolidate control over the region’s oil, the U.S. has escalated its air strikes and drone attacks, murdering uncounted civilians there. Several Republican candidates for U.S. president are now calling for a new ground invasion, this time aimed against the Islamic State, or ISIS. The U.S. rulers know they cannot protect their oil wealth without a restored military draft and a major ground invasion. They also know they cannot execute a ground war without political support from the U.S. working class—something they don’t have, at least not yet.
The seeds for ISIS were planted by the desperate U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the more recent escalation of the conflict in Syria. While the small-scale terror of ISIS pales against the monumental state terror of U.S. imperialism, the group is an extreme example of “the marsh” of religion. The ISIS bosses’ “caliphate” is in fact a mini-imperialist state with its own designs on Middle East oil.
The refugee crisis caused by imperialist rivalry, and in particular by ongoing war in Syria and Afghanistan, saw workers in Europe open their doors to their working-class sisters and brothers. As the bosses resorted to open racism to deport the refugees back to misery and death, the international working class responded heroically. Workers have no borders!
Faced with the perpetual crises of capitalism, too many workers in 2015 sought answers from the “marsh” of liberal bosses. In Greece, the working class placed its hope for meaningful resistance in Syriza, a party of the so-called radical left. In reality, however, Syriza’s role was to rally workers to vote before selling them out. Similar sellout, fake-leftist movements in Spain, Brazil, Venezuela and South Africa have pushed workers deeper into the jaws of capitalism.
Danger and Opportunity
In the U.S., the heart of global imperialism, 2015 saw cities rocked by anti-racist rebellion. From Baltimore to Chicago, Black youth led the way and exploded against racist police terror. Building on the Ferguson rebellion of 2014, these actions grew into a multiracial mass movement that terrified the U.S. ruling class. Calls from “the marsh” of identity politics by Black Lives Matter and others are working to undermine the revolutionary potential of this movement. PLP has championed multiracial unity in all fightback struggles, and we are growing in numbers and influence. Join us in this work in 2016!
Today the bosses are whipping up anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant racism to keep us divided and win support for the bigger wars to come. Gutter rightwing politicians like Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen dominate the capitalist media and embolden the fascist right. As the bosses’ push the phony pretext of fighting “terrorism,” immigrant workers suffer the brunt of racist attacks and deportations.
But the main threats to our class are not the Trumps and Le Pens. The biggest dangers are liberal capitalists like Barack Obama and Pope Francis, who deceive honest workers in the name of reform. But capitalism can never be reformed to serve workers. It can only serve profit, first and last.
Out of the Marshes, Into the Class War!
Throughout 2015, the Progressive Labor Party was in the thick of struggles in more than two dozen countries. Our Party continued to fight to organize the international working class into a mass party of millions, and to turn imperialist war into class war for communist revolution.
PLP broke marching bans in New York City after two cops were killed there. We fought the racist expansion of Jewish settlements in Israel-Palestine. We organized teachers and students in East Africa and led mass marches against the United Nations occupation in Haiti. In Pakistan, we built leadership—with an emphasis on leadership by women—and fightback across the most vulnerable sectors of the working class.
In July we confronted the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina while exposing the capitalist-funded Black Lives Matter misleaders. In Haiti and East Africa, we exposed fake leftist politicians with a long track record of corruption. The revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party organizes the working class not to vote in some electoral charade, but to revolt. We don’t settle for crumbs off the bosses’ table. We organize and fight to smash this entire racist capitalist system and the imperialism, racism and sexism it relies upon.
The year 2015 also marked PLP’s 50 years of waging fights for communism in schools, on the job, in the streets and the military. Our international convention in August passed the torch to a new generation of communist leaders who are mainly women and immigrant. It’s revolutionizing the concept of leadership — anyone and everyone who fights in the interest of the working can be a leader. This new collective leadership further advances our fight for a mass, international communist movement. The coming year will be one of struggle inside and outside the Party to make the needs of the whole working class our top priority.
For our kids, for the victims of racist police terror, drone strikes, imperialist devastation and the refugee crisis, let’s dedicate 2016 to connecting the struggles of our class worldwide to our fight for communism. Let our New Year’s resolution be to attack every manifestation of capitalism. Let us resolve to join mass organizations wherever workers are fighting, and to share with them our vision for a communist world—a world free from racism, sexism, inequality, and imperialist war.