Letters ... November 2, 2022

Street-vendor workers protest racist harassment
We were at a pro-street vendor coalition protest march. It was a reformist protest, demanding that the city increase the number of licenses for these workers. These workers are harassed daily and persecuted by the police, with numerous fines, which they have to pay. This makes life more difficult for these workers since most of them are undocumented and depend on what they can earn from their daily sales to be able to survive in a city where life is becoming more and more expensive and impossible for the working class. Life is more difficult especially for undocumented immigrants, who are victims of harassment and racism.

Two members of Progressive Labor Party, who are doing the work within a community organization of the coalition, gave leadership several times during the march, shouting our slogans, putting forth our Party’s line, and at one point in the march, we very quickly placed a large blanket with the demands in a government office. We also distributed several Challenges that were enthusiastically taken by people who already knew our paper. It was a day of militant struggle, but only communism will save our entire working class from the atrocities of capitalism.

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Two funerals and a revolution
On September 24th CHALLENGE ran an editorial on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The article did an excellent job juxtaposing the pageantry that surrounded Elizbaeth’s state-sponsored funeral with the emiseration and destruction her family’s British Empire wrought during its peak years. But, Elizabeth’s death symbolizes something else for the workers of the world. Her death, coming long after the death of monarchy and feudalism, should remind us that there was a time peasants could not imagine the end of kings and queens. In fact, the English monarchy has existed (and actually ruled) for more than one thousand years. Elizabeth was, for her entire life, nothing but a figurehead, a nostalgic mascot paraded around by capitalists hundreds of years after they themselves violently ended the rule of kings and queens. Capitalism, as an economic system, is still far younger than feudalism was when capitalism overthrew it, and yet many will confidently assure workers that capitalism is the best system possible. They say that communism, an idea barely one hundred-and-fifty years old, has had its day in the sun.

In reality the Soviet Union, the Chinese Revolution, and history’s other worker victories are only the foreshadowing of a worker-run communist world. Whether in the next one hundred years or five hundred years, capitalism’s contradictions will lead to the truly productive class, the workers, taking control, just like the capitalists took control from Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors all those years ago. Elizabeth’s passing should remind us: there will be a day when workers see a headline commemorating the world’s last living capitalist succumbing to old age, and on that day we will shake our heads and say “good riddance.”
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Looking forward to sharing vision of communism
Edward Bellamy’s book, Looking Backward, could have been titled “Looking Forward”. The first Challenge review moved me to go to the library. I applauded Bellamy’s mandatory work for ages 21-45--inclusive of folks with physical or mental challenges. Equal credit cards are distributed for necessities and “luxuries.”

Later, on reading our second review, I appreciated pointing out Bellamy’s weaknesses: attaining such a society peaceably, omitting racial issues and viewing women in a limited way.

However, the book’s best-selling reception indicated he speaks to human needs: 1) Work is a necessity and can be created for those with “lesser” abilities to develop their full potential.  The threat of unemployment and cynicism of cutthroat competition is absent. 2) People realize the benefits of their labor when capitalist waste is eliminated: i.e., glut of oversupply and duplication of brand-name goods. I reveled when Bellamy eliminated the monstrous military budget, politicians, and the court system.

Many folks I approach today with our paper agree that capitalism is violent and can only be fought with violence. But questions I hear often are, “How will you motivate people to fight for these values? How can you have a society without money?

I must remind myself to engage people more around a vision of a communist future. In achieving popular status back in the day, Bellamy’s book addressed a universal hunger for these ideas. That said, building a society with productive work and people receiving the fruits of their labor is worth fighting for!
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CHALLENGE response:
Bellamy’s racist eugenics and his disgustingly anti-communist, fascist, and sexist ideas outweigh any of his positive anti-capitalist ideas. Building a communist society requires the fight to eradicate these ideas and practices.