Letters of January 16

Push Fight for Communism, Map Future Struggles

At the end of our PLP college club meeting we felt that we had taken another step forward. Our club is where we plan and evaluate our battles, both ideological and material, against capitalism. Internationalism is very much present in our club body and politics. 

Not only are we from all parts of the world, but the nature of our work crosses all borders. Our involvement includes an immigrant youth group, Haitian Student Association group and a police brutality struggle.

After a bowl of chili and chips, we began with the editorial “Gaza Carnage Prelude to U.S.-Israeli War on Iran?” in the last issue of CHALLENGE. Present were our two newest PL’ers who joined at our last study group: Ann and Jack. One brought a friend “to check it out.” There wasn’t much discussion about the editorial. Instead, our newest PL’ers were primarily concerned with one thing: How do we get people to be active in the fight for communism? 

Before we could address that, we discussed the state of the working class. “Here, people accept the status quo. People aren’t rising up. Occupy is done,” said Jack. Though our new members are passionate about change, at times they lack confidence in the working class. 

Much of the cynicism stems from the defeat of the old communist movement. Restoration of capitalism in Russia and China has set back the revolutionary process. But learning from our revolutionary history gives us more reason to fight harder for communism today. 

Everywhere workers are fighting back. Just last week, Walmart and fast food workers went on strike in the U.S. “What did we get out of Occupy? We got you,” responded a veteran comrade.

Last month, three PL’ers went to join our comrades in Haiti on a teachers strike, in the battle against racist killer kkkops, and for a student conference. Our comrades in Haiti serve as a beacon of inspiration in their militancy and commitment to building for a communist revolution. 

Lessons these three comrades learned are helping the whole club become better fighters. There is a saying in PLP, “an attack on one worker is an attack on all workers.” Likewise, when fight-backs and the Party are strengthening in one area, it fuels other areas, strengthening the Party as whole. A win for workers in Haiti is a win for workers all over the world.  

Interestingly, the questions asked today at our club meeting were the same ones asked at our youth conference in Haiti — What’s the plan? What should we do to fight against imperialism? How do we mobilize masses of people for communism?

The solution and plan is the same worldwide. We have a powerful set of tools. First are our political ideas and the Party. We have a mass strategy of building serious lifelong political friendships with workers, students, and soldiers. We have CHALLENGE! We have our principles of constant criticism and self-criticism to guide our process forward. What keeps us going? Confidence in and love for our class and our understanding of the everyday disaster of capitalism.  

We understand the fight for communism is difficult and protracted. The revolution isn’t around the corner. There may well be bloody, long imperialist war that we will struggle to transform into worldwide class war and revolution. 

On that note, we discussed our upcoming plans — a vigil for the six-month anniversary of the kkkilling of Shantel Davis, a communist school, a conference against imperialism, and May Day! Our newest comrades can spread PLP struggle into two more college campuses. There is so much potential, and so much to be done!

Young Red

Marxist Prof Exposes Tea Party Red-baiters

Representatives of “conservative,” “Libertarian” and “liberal” politics aired their differing views at a debate on the campus of Montclair State University (MSU).

The debate was scheduled and paid for by Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a right-wing, pro-capitalist student group with headquarters in Washington, DC and a big budget from conservative corporate foundations. The MSU YAL chapter wanted English Professor Grover Furr to represent the “liberal” viewpoint. They knew that Furr is a Marxist, not a “liberal,” but wanted him because he is an unofficial advisor to the MSU Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter.

At the debate, a representative of the right-wing “Tea Party” asked  Furr: “Stalin killed 40-60 million people. Wasn’t that enough?” 

Furr replied: “That’s bullsh*t! That’s not true.” He said that he had done research on this topic for many years and has “yet to discover one crime that Stalin committed.” Furr concluded this remark by saying that U.S. history is certainly falsified, but that the history of the Soviet Union is the most falsified of all.

Since then Furr has received death threats and lots of harassing junk mail. Right-wing lawyers have repeatedly emailed the president of MSU and the chair of the English department, Furr’s immediate superior, to demand that he be fired.

Anti-communists have posted phony “evaluations” on Ratemyprofessor.com claiming that Furr teaches nothing but Stalin in his classes. The right-wingers then claim that Furr is misusing his classrooms to “indoctrinate” his students. 

All this is a lie. Moreover, it exposes this fact: The anti-communists have no evidence whatsoever to support their claims that Stalin killed millions, or even one person! They just don’t like anyone to tell the truth about the USSR during Stalin’s time.

The harassment and hate mail continue, but not everyone is resistant to a communist message. Furr has also received some positive emails, thanking him for daring to tell the truth. The MSU chapter of SDS has invited Furr to speak to them twice since then. PLP’ers have circulated CHALLENGE to many of them. Several have expressed interest in a study group. When communists are attacked by adherents of the bosses’ ideas, our friends have the opportunity to take a stand and take the next step in learning more of the truth about revolutionary ideas.

Red Researcher

Benghazi Debate Lies

The big media debate over whether the anti-Muslim video or a planned al Qaeda mission was responsible for the incident at the U.S. embassy in Benghazi is designed to obscure the role of U.S. imperialism.

Decades of anti-Muslim oppression in the oil-rich Mideast from invasions, occupations, military support of dictators and Israeli genocide against Palestinians in addition to slaughter from U.S. drone bombings are the real reasons why an anti-Muslim video triggered anti-U.S. demonstrations. They occurred in 30 other countries at the same time as Libya. Libya is ruled by armed militias who joined their anti-U.S. demonstrators when attacked by embassy forces.

The Benghazi incident has been reclassified as a premeditated al Qaeda terrorist attack to hide the real terrorists: U.S. imperialism.

Anti-Imperialist

U.S. Capitalism’s Violent Culture

The cause of the Newton, Connecticut massacre will not appear in the capitalist-controlled media because the rulers need to blame the mentally ill and guns for the proliferation of a violent U.S. culture. That culture was created by capitalists to make it easier to extract bloody profits from people through terror, racism, exploitation and war.

With the world’s biggest, racist prison population, fascist stop-and-frisk police terror against hundreds of thousands of black and Latino youth and the increase of violent TV, movies and video games, U.S. rulers are preparing workers and teenagers for a culture of racism and violence against people. The Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s sixth-grade teacher said he talked about “blowing things up,” but that it was just typical talk for boys his age. (New York Times, 12/15)

Forty-six percent live in poverty in the U.S., with more homeless and hungry children than any developed country worldwide. Daily suicides from the 30 million unemployed and underemployed workers, war veterans and students attest to the violence capitalism imposes on people it can no longer exploit or use as cannon fodder in its profit wars.

Martin Luther King was condemned in the media and by his peers when he denounced the Vietnam War’s genocide and racism by saying the U.S. was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. He was assassinated shortly after that.

The world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of weapons of war is the U.S., accounting for the largest percentage of its Gross Domestic Product. U.S. imperialism is hated worldwide because workers rising up against capitalist oppression are met by jet fighters, drone bombers, tanks, land mines and millions of gas canisters labeled “Made in USA.”

Millions of workers are being forced into poverty to pay for decades of invasions, occupations and endless wars that benefit the U.S. corporate empire. The bosses’ profit system depends on workers accepting a future of violence, austerity and dying in imperialist wars. Workers need to smash that murderous system by organizing with PLP for communist revolution and a system without profits, run for and by the working class.

A Comrade