Letters of December 10

Conference Builds New Fighters

I walked in during the keynote speech. It was powerful. After awhile we were split into groups, began our workshop and discussed fascism. We learned that the victims of it and its cause and effect all comes down to capitalism. Then we discussed the solution — communism — and how to build a base. After lunch we all gathered and watched clips from Ferguson and talked about the significance of it and heard stories from people who had gone. Then we organized our march. With signs and catchy chants, we proceeded through Harlem, eventually making contact with the police. But we kept going.
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Fear is an instrument that suppresses the working class. As a tool of control, it can cause workers to feel isolated and powerless.
The mere chant and shout of defiance allowed the people of Harlem — every day men and women who struggle to survive — a brief, refreshing view of defiance and courage. It was heartening to have my fellow comrades side by side shout out to the ruling class and to the cops who attempted to disperse our rally. You saw people, everyday people peering out from the crowd, with curiosity, confusion, and hopefully the light of inspiration.
Fear is merely a tool. Some of us were very afraid to rally today, but in order to travel toward our destination, a worker-run society, we have to take the step. Courage and heart is the key.
It was inspiring to take that step to every day workers.
In struggle, in humanity, in love, in communism.
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Today was the first time I’ve ever done anything or come out to an event with PL. During the workshops I learned a lot more about what communism is and about what communists believe in. I did not know what to expect coming to the conference but I did enjoy myself and learn a lot. At the march I felt really empowered, I admit I felt very nervous when I saw the first cop lights flash but everyone kept going so I tried following them. I was quick to think the worst was going to happen but we weren’t doing anything wrong.
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This was my first experience in a Progressive Labor Party rally. I felt excited and glad to be a part of something that really hits some of the problems that the U.S. has — racism, and working-class oppression. I’ve re-educated myself on fascism and how the U.S. is becoming more of a fascist country.
We marched in Harlem to protest on behalf of belief in equality for everyone. No more should anyone be oppressed based on their “race,” religion, or sex. We are the change that needs to be made here, and we will be heard.
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Today was very influential. I’ve never participated in a communist movement. It felt good to be a part of a positive cause. The previous movements I’ve seen did not go well. Because of the violence between the police and the community I was initially fearful the same outcome would happen. But surprisingly, no violence and unnecessary actions took place. I felt really safe around my group members.
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I’ve been to past rallies; however I have never felt so scared as when I rallied in NY. It was cool.
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Each rally is always different. It is the reason I get excited to yell and scream and make some noise. I want to let fascist police, bosses, and also other workers know that our presence is here. It’s my motivation to continue and participate in PLP. Down with capitalism!
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Today I experienced my first march. I felt very empowered and scared. It was a fun experience. I thought I was going to get arrested and it made me think of how people stay strong even if the police are there.
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Speaking as one who is now designated a “veteran,” I must say I was pleased and proud at the recent student conference.  The young people leading our struggle are smart and committed. The multiracial character of the conference indicated that, unlike most so-called left political formations emerging from the 1960s, PLP has really succeeded in generating a young leadership that does not just preach, but actually embodies the necessity of fighting racism.  The key role played at all levels by young women shows, too, that we take the fight against sexism very seriously.  And the dedication manifested in the work in Ferguson shows that our young leaders are energetic and bold.
I do, however, have a couple of points of criticism, one tactical, one theoretical.
First, the march undertaken during the conference should have been better planned and carried out; a couple of times the marchers needlessly taunted the police in locales where large numbers of us could have been arrested.  And while at times it is worthwhile — even good — to get arrested, this was not one of those times, with so many of the marchers being from out of town.
Second, while my afternoon workshop showed that a number of student comrades are doing skillful political work, my morning workshop was pretty weak on its analysis of what fascism actually is, as well as of why communism is its only antidote.  The relation of fascism to the political economy of capitalism was not discussed; and at times it seemed that the word “communism” was being invoked in a quasi-magical kind of way.  More concrete analysis is needed of what is wrong with capitalism — why it cannot imaginably meet the needs of most people on the planet — and of its connection to fascism.  Whether or not the Party believes that we are, at least in the USA, “in” a state of fascism was not discussed with enough rigor.
These points of criticism point to ways in which we need to grow and develop.  But the conference indicated that we are well positioned to do so.  We have a world to win.
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Today I experienced my first march. I felt very empowered and scared. It was a fun experience. I thought I was going to get arrested and it made me think of how people stay strong even if the police are there. After this I am not sure if I want to experience this again.

Lesson Learned From a History of War: Fight for Communism

The murderous Great War ended 96 years ago. To overestimate the impact of this war upon world history might be impossible. It was by far the bloodiest war in history until that time.
The slaughter horrified even those many patriots who had anticipated it and celebrated when it began.
The Great War was pure imperialist — capitalist slaughter for empire and territory. There were no purposes that could remotely be called morally redeeming.
It wasn’t for “freedom,” whatever that means, or for “national self-determination,” or for an end to colonialism, or against racism or brutality. All these notions mask the fact that the Second World War was imperialist. No such ideological excuses can hide that the Great War was over the division of the earth, a war for, not against, subordination, colonialism, and empire.
It was a war among “democracies” — in that Germany was no less “democratic” than the United Kingdom (both were parliamentary monarchies) or, monarchy aside, than the United States.
The Great War led millions of people worldwide to seriously question or even reject “patriotism” as a cover-up for capitalist and imperialist rule.
This massive revulsion against imperialist slaughter and the misery it brought to the vast majority of the peoples of the world inspired social and political progress. The Russian Revolution and the international communist movement; the militancy of organized labor; the certainty that a better world than capitalism, imperialism, and the devastation they produce must be possible.
The Great War was an event with mighty lessons for all of us today. No wonder it is neglected, largely forgotten. Those lessons were dynamite in 1918, and still are.
Today I remember my great-uncle George Devine, a veteran and a victim of the Great War.
I never knew him. He went off to war at the age of 17 or 18. In 1918, he returned “shell-shocked”, driven insane by the stress and shock of trench warfare. He never recovered.
My late mother remembers him living with her and her parents for brief periods in the 1920s. But then he had to return to the Veterans Administration hospital for brain injuries at Perry Point, MD, where he lived the rest of his life. He died there on January 31, 1941.
Poor young man! His whole bright future at the age of 17 ruined forever!
And not to defend his country, or any noble ideal at all. To save J.P. Morgan & Sons, and other U.S. banks, whose huge loans to the United Kingdom would have been lost if Germany had won the war.
My late grandmother, his only sibling, could never speak of her younger brother George without weeping. Not wishing to cause her distress, we never asked her about him. And now it is far, far too late.
I remember him today, on the 96th anniversary of the end of the war that ruined his life.
Yet he was but one of millions of young men, and tens of millions of men, women, and children the world around whose lives were blasted by that terrible, imperialist war.
For me, great-uncle George stands in for all of them ­— all the people killed by wars for exploitation, for the enrichment of the few at huge cost to the many.
And I prefer to believe this: As long as I, we, learn the lessons of the Great War, and struggle for a world of justice, free of exploitation, free of capitalism, free of inequality — great-uncle George, and the myriad of those like him throughout the history of the awful 20th century, did not die entirely in vain.
A loving communist nephew