‘Identity politics workshop: ‘very enlightening’
I have been interested in learning more about Progressive Labor Party and had heard from my friend that her sister is involved in a communist discussion group. I contacted her sister and she informed me of an education workshop that was taking place over zoom about communism in the classroom. I was intrigued, and decided to attend. I also just want to state that I am a queer, white woman and a recent STEM college graduate. Around 55 people attended the forum, which was surprising to me. An opening speech was given about how, through communism,U.S. workers can defeat capitalism and the  negative effects (racism, sexism, etc.) it has on our society. I ended up attending one workshop about identity politics. It was very enlightening because I honestly wasn’t too familiar with identity politics before this. I consider myself a huge feminist and am part of the LGBTQ+ community.
It was interesting to learn that it’s better not to identify with people who are similar to you in terms of race or gender or sexuality, but rather with class. I’ve always automatically aligned myself with people that are within those two categories I mentioned above. I was actually also surprised to hear that racism can affect everyone in the workforce who isn’t on the top, not just nonwhite workers.
While I didn’t actively participate in the forum because I felt I was too uneducated, I enjoyed listening to what people had to say and learned a lot. This event has inspired the activist within me and I want to push through my comfort zone to do more.
I want to take action and do my part to fight capitalism. Thank you for the educational forum!
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Angela Davis, not a communist
The otherwise excellent article, “Only Communism Can Eradicate Sexism” (CHALLENGE, 3/17), was marred by some confusion over communist history and what it means to be a revolutionary.
Exhibit A: While Angela Davis was a longtime member and leader of the Communist Party USA, it would be incorrect to call her a “Black communist.” In the 1930s, a time when workers still held state power in the Soviet Union, the CPUSA was part of the vanguard of the international revolutionary communist movement. The party had political weaknesses, notably in joining an anti-fascist “popular front” with liberal Democrats.
But as the Langston Hughes article in the same issue of CHALLENGE pointed out, the CPUSA took a leading role in the most militant working-class and anti-racist struggles of the day, including leading the defense of the Scottsboro Boys.
With the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union accelerated its decay into state capitalism. Under the leadership of arch-revisionists (fake leftists) Earl Browder and then Gus Hall, the CPUSA followed the USSR’s tragic lead, abandoned revolution, and dove into reformist trade unionism. In 1962, the founders of Progressive Labor Party (then the Progressive Labor Movement) were kicked out—a badge of honor. By 1980, when Angela Davis ran for U.S. vice president on the CPUSA ticket with Gus Hall, she’d become another sell-out, lesser-evil capitalist reformer, no more and no less.
In 2019, in a statement celebrating the 100th anniversary of the CPUSA, this self-proclaimed socialist feminist wrote: “At the very least we must defeat the Trump administration in 2020!” Davis openly backed Joe Biden, the chief architect of racist mass incarceration. She said the choice of Top Cop Kamala Harris as Biden’s running mate made the ticket “more palatable”—a corrupt nod to reactionary, lesser-evil identity politics.
Davis was right about one thing, however. Biden and Harris are indeed “the very least” the working class could get.
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Overcome liberal illusions
We must beware of liberal police reforms that might lull us into thinking the police state we live in can be reformed. Perhaps the biggest response – by liberal politicians – to our summer of sharp struggle, has been in Ithaca, New York. Mayor Myrick’s new proposal would replace the city’s existing police department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety.” Some tasks that don’t necessitate armed cops are slated to be turned over to unarmed “community solution workers” who will report to a civilian director of public safety, instead of a police chief. Perhaps that will save upstate capitalists some city payroll money.
However, armed “public safety workers” will also exist, as before. Undoubtedly, those cops will remain prepared to carry out organized violence in a determined effort to suppress any workers’ strikes; suppress any large-scale, bold student protests fighting for progressive demands; and suppress any powerful movements which seriously challenge the racial inequities that lie at the heart of capitalism.
The capitalist rulers need racist police brutality, intimidation, and terror to maintain their power over us. The system works just like it has been developed to do. So instead of begging the rulers to change their ways, we must overthrow them.
To do this, we need to build a revolutionary, antiracist, working class party that takes aim at the entire structure and system of capitalism. A broad movement led by such a party can make a revolution to replace the existing racist capitalist system with a communist system of working class equality, antisexism and antiracism. Then we can creatively work to meet our class’s needs rather than slaving to make big profits for capitalists. Overcoming liberal illusions about the capitalist system, by millions of workers and youth, can open the way for a better future!
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Where are you, Joe?
I was listening to a talk show about jobless Washington hotel workers seeking help and not getting it from their union. At the beginning of the show the moderator called for comments from people, “ with union experience like Joe” (I had been on the show a few times already). I called in to comment but was on hold. With five minutes to the program’s end, the moderator said, “Joe, where are you? Are you out there?” and suddenly my phone was connected to the show.
With only a minute to go I said the problem was that the labor movement had become business unionism and labor leaders had become capitalists with six figure salaries. I said when communists were in the unions, the leaders received only the average pay of union workers and reluctant leaders were instantly replaced.
Later I tried to understand why the moderator had called on me and I recalled previous shows like one on union organizing where I said that before communists were barred from union leadership, there were lunch-time discussions on world events and local strikes that workers could join after work. On another show I related the recent New York City Teamsters strike to the 1964 Transit workers strike that won because bosses said, “You’ve got a gun to our heads” which revealed the power of a united working class.
All these recollections made me realize that the moderator was calling for on the job, working-class tactics and strategies to fight capitalist oppression even when they are communist ideas.
Our Party needs to use every opportunity to relate our historical and current struggle experiences with workers to help them realize that communism is them running society in their interests.
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