NEWARK, NJ—Over 24 members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party discussed the state of the world after the election of Donald Trump. As they began to fill the apartment and prepare dishes, discussions already started about the presidency. The event was a display of multiracial and multigenerational unity ready to fight back in 2017.
What was to be an evening of entertainment and discussions around the presidency turned into an analysis of the old communist movement and what it will take to lead the working class to communist revolution.
Skit Shows Challenges of Overcoming Bad Ideas
Two comrades initiated the discussion by presenting a skit to show what some workers are thinking concerning elections. Whether it is the belief that we can find the “best candidate” or in the belief that white workers can’t be trusted, these are ideas held by people close to PLP and who at times fight alongside us. The skit showed how PL’s views contrasted with these workers.
The skit set the stage for us to always struggle against these ideas, even when we are in the minority. Through building personal relationships and engaging in class struggle, these words really do start to take form. The ideas are not empty rhetoric, but a political line that will lead us to revolution.
What Happened to the Old Movement?
After the skit, we aimed to analyze the historical process that brought Trump to the presidency and its implications for the working class. There was talk about the growing racism and sexism, which are endemic to capitalism. From attacks on immigrants and Muslims to future defunding of women’s health services like Planned Parenthood, it is clear we have a fight on our hands.
 Trump is inheriting a war and deportation machine. Currently involved in wars in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia as well as expanding the surveillance state and deportation machine, The Obama administration has done most of the legwork for Trump to carry out his campaign promises (see page 4).
Then, a friend raised the million-dollar question, “What happened to the old communist movement?  Why did they fail?”
Whether it was the maintaining of the wage system, the line of “revolutionary nationalism” (essentially allying with one set of bosses that look like us) or uniting with the “better capitalists” in the popular front theory of World War II, the old communist movement gave us a lot of lessons for the future.
Perhaps the failure of the old movement can be summed in three words: lack of confidence. A communist movement is as strong as is relationship with the working class. The following is an excerpt from Road to Revolution III, PLP’s analysis of the failure of the Chinese Revolution:
Only the workers have the power and understanding to win and secure state power. We must involve millions in the Marxist-Leninist process. History has taught us the bitter lesson that a party can grow, can lead struggles, and even hold power temporarily. But it will lose out if millions upon millions of workers aren’t imbued with communist consciousness, and take part in the political planning and direction of the Party. We reject reliance on the ruling class—any section of it.
We rely only on workers all over the world. The working class is one international class with the need to crush each section of the international bourgeoisie until the entire ruling class is finished. This is not a bookkeeper’s approach. It is an approach which demands the unity of all workers at the highest level. It calls upon all workers to be won to Marxism- Leninism.
While we weren’t able to completely cover them, PLP explained that with all of these errors, this was the first time millions worldwide were fighting to get rid of human exploitation. We have much to learn from our predecessors.  
Capitalism Decaying, yet Alive
A comrade also spoke about capitalism’s ability to stay alive throughout the period when pro-communist ideas touched virtually every corner of the earth. Through depression and wars, the bosses found a way to stay alive. This is not to say that our fight is futile; we shouldn’t underestimate the flexibility of the rulers. At the same time, the working class will win once we shed ourselves of capitalist illusions.
Another friend asked about a visible weakness of our social—a lack of students. PL’ers accepted our friends’ challenge to ensure we work harder to include more students.
We also had a discussion about some of the challenges in organizing young people. Like many workers, young people are also held back by illusions, particularly the belief that workers can’t run the world. However, our Party has had relative success in embedding ourselves in high schools, and reaching students that way, some of whom grow up to become communist leaders in their workplaces.
Building a Base Leads to Growth
The contributions by friends of the Party illustrated the importance of keeping ties to the working class. They were the ones who put the questions of communism front and center and struggled with us to continue to work and recruit more young people to the Party. Taking leadership from the masses, and winning them to communist consciousness and organizing is key. Hopefully they too will join the Party and take on the responsibility of organizing millions to fight for communism.

[World War I] has undoubtedly created the acutest crises and has incredibly intensified the sufferings of the masses. The reactionary character of this war, the shameless lie of the bourgeoisie of all countries which covers its predatory aims with “national” ideology, all this inevitably creates…revolutionary sentiments in the masses. Our duty is to help make these sentiments conscious, to deepen them and give them form. The only correct expression of this task is the slogan “Turn the imperialist war into civil war [class war, ed.].” All consistent class struggle in time of war, all “mass action” earnestly conducted must inevitably lead to this. We cannot know whether in the first or in the second imperialist war between the great nations, whether during or after it, a strong revolutionary movement will flare up. Whatever the case may be, it is our absolute duty systematically and unflinchingly to work in that particular direction.
—V.I. Lenin, Turn Imperialist War Into Civil War (August 1915)

A little over two years after Lenin wrote these prophetic words the Russian communists (Bolsheviks) led the working class to a socialist revolution right in the middle of World War I. Today the imperialist world powers (United States, China, Russia) are devastating the world’s workers as they promote many, vicious regional wars and move ever closer to world war. Millions of workers are sucked into fighting and dying in these imperialist wars for profit and resources, but many are also rebelling and striking against their own profiteering, warmongering bosses. Now, more than ever, the job of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is to fight the bosses everywhere, to disrupt their plans for war and world domination and to rebuild a worldwide, revolutionary, communist movement to seize power for the working class.
The young, Black rebels of Ferguson, Missouri had it right when they violently fought the racist cops and proclaimed that “It’s the whole damn system.” That rebellion set an example for workers and students worldwide. Many members of our Party went to Ferguson, learned from that militant fightback, and also were able to provide some leadership. And the Progressive Labor Party grew, both in numbers and in toughness.
Young, Multiracial Collectives Lead the Party
At our convention in 2015 we adopted a new collective style of leadership with many young comrades, strengthened by Ferguson, stepping forward and taking on more responsibility. This past year has shown this to be an excellent decision. Collectives now lead most areas of Party work, with young comrades, especially women, Black, Latin, and immigrant comrades, at the forefront. Challenge articles and editorials are researched, discussed, and written collectively. We have had cadre schools for college comrades, internationally, and for producing Challenge.
This transition to collective leadership paved the road for even sharper struggles in 2016. Our new, young Party leaders became stronger leaders. They learned mainly through struggles against the bosses and the bosses’ government. In San Francisco they helped lead a takeover of City Hall. While occupying City Hall they organized study groups explaining communism. Soon after, comrades in Anaheim and Sacramento battled KKK and Nazi scum to show them that there’s no free speech for racists!
Several comrades with a bullhorn provided leadership in Baton Rouge during the rebellion against racist police terror. A few weeks later, a local leader from Baton Rouge joined us in Philadelphia to protest against the Democratic National Convention. When we exposed Bernie Sanders in the streets outside the convention, many Sanders supporters joined us and some came to our forum. In Cleveland, comrades learned from workers in the neighborhood where Tamir Rice was murdered. Those workers didn’t care about the Republican National Convention going on downtown. They knew it wouldn’t stop racist police murders. Some agreed with the ideas of communism and took CHALLENGE for their friends. In Minneapolis, we learned about boldness when we interrupted Hillary Clinton at the American Federation of Teachers Convention. We unfurled a banner and led chants to show that Clinton is just as racist as the rest of them. In the Bronx our young leaders have stepped forward both in the streets and at several college campuses fighting back against racism and exposing the futility of elections.
In Haiti, as our young leaders organized relief efforts after Hurricane Matthew, they also explained that only communism can end capitalist exploitation once and for all. In Pakistan, comrades are leading anti-sexist struggles in the brick kiln industry and fighting for better wages and working conditions in electricity, sanitation, and gas companies. In Mexico, comrades are leading the struggle against fascist attacks on teachers and workers in several provinces. From India to Standing Rock we are fighting back against the bosses’ exploitation and building a mass, revolutionary, communist party that will lead the working-class to power.
Spread Challenge and its Communist Ideas Worldwide
But it’s never enough. We can always do more, and better. The bosses will not let us rest. As imperialist competition intensifies and misery for the working-class increases all over the world, so do fascist movements, from Donald Trump in the U.S. to Marine Le Pen in France. But the only solution is communist revolution. Whether it’s a civil war in Syria or Yemen or Ukraine, capitalism offers nothing for workers but death and destruction. CHALLENGE does a great job of explaining what’s going on, and we must bring its communist ideas and our communist Party to the workers:

From Flint, Michigan to Standing Rock—
Strikes in India and Pakistan to
a failed coup in Turkey—
Teacher rebellion in Mexico to
national prison strike in the U.S.—
Be it military bases in tiny Djibouti or
the racist police killings in Brazil—
Let’s bring challenge, its communist ideas, and PLP to every corner of the world.

Because the Ferguson rebels had it right: “It’s the Whole Damn System!” Help us in making 2017 a great year of struggle for the international working class. 2016 has steeled us for more intense fightbacks in 2017. Join the Progressive Labor Party. Fight for communism!

The United States empire is weaker than at any time since World War II. This weakness is exposing divisions among U.S. bosses over the future of their threatened empire, and in particular over U.S. relations with Russia. For now, the U.S. bosses seek co-existence with Russia and their other main imperialist rival, China, to give them time to mobilize for an inevitable global conflict. As the Council on Foreign Relations, the leading think tank for U.S. main-wing, finance capitalism, observes:

An extended standoff between supporters of a liberal international order and those who contest it may accidentally lead to outright conflict. A better approach would be for liberal countries to prepare themselves for a period of awkward coexistence with illiberal ones, cooperating on some occasions and competing on others (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2017).

Opportunistic on Russia
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia’s sphere of influence  shrunk dramatically. Former Soviet nations were absorbed into the pro-U.S./European Union NATO bloc. More recently, the U.S. empire has entered a period of marked decline. In the post-World War II era, U.S. imperialist domination has centered on control of Middle East oil. After the 1979 Iranian revolution , however, U.S. domination in the region gradually waned. A resurgent Russia has expanded its regional influence and directly challenged U.S. domination. On December 20, in the latest setback for the U.S. ruling class, Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow “to work toward a political accord to end Syria’s nearly six-year war, leaving the United States on the sidelines as the countries sought to drive the conflict in ways that serve their interests” (New York Times, 12/21).
These defeats for U.S. imperialism, and the bosses’ uncertainty over how to respond to them, explain their disarray over November’s presidential elections and Donald Trump’s proposed cabinet. Even so, the nomination of Rex Tillerson, chief of Exxon Mobil, is another indication that the rulers’ main finance wing will align a Trump administration to serve their needs.
At least one section of the main wing appears to be buying time for global conflict while making profits along the way. Where former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond was unable to close a deal with Russia in the 2000s, Tillerson found more success:

Tillerson had spent time in the 1990s overseeing a flagship Exxon project in Russia. And he flew there in 2011 to meet with Putin and announce a strategic partnership with Rosneft, the national oil company that absorbed [formerly privately owned] Yukos’ main assets after [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky was thrown in jail.
The two companies were to jointly develop potentially massive oil reserves in Russia’s Arctic waters, the Black Sea, and Siberian unconventional resources. Putin spoke of investments from the deal eventually reaching perhaps $500 billion—a big number even for Exxon. No sooner had the venture struck oil beneath the Kara Sea, though, than Exxon was forced to down tools as U.S. sanctions over the Ukraine crisis kicked in (Bloomberg, 10/12).

Tillerson is backed by core members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment: James Baker (secretary of state under George H.W. Bush), Condoleezza Rice (secretary of state under George W. Bush), and Robert Gates (CIA director under Bush I, secretary of defense under Bush II). All three have ties to the oil industry (Media Matters, 12/13).
With so much at stake for Exxon Mobil, a chief source of profits for the main wing, U.S. rulers may be prepared to accept a short-term political defeat by ceding influence to Russia in the Middle East.  
Syria: Killing Fields of Imperialist Rivalry
As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-consolidates his control, despite U.S. proxy efforts to oust him, the Russian military is operating freely throughout the country--the first U.S. rival to do so since World War II. The sacking of Aleppo by the pro-Russian Assad regime could not have succeeded without military support from Russian imperialism. This campaign, brokered with regional powers Turkey and Iran, had no input from the U.S. or the EU. Turkey agreed to withdraw support from rebel factions in exchange for an oil pipeline deal with Russia (Reuters, 10/10). The strengthening of military and economic ties between Russia and Turkey  is a significant reversal of fortune for U.S. imperialism.
After the failed U.S. invasions of Iraq, the new Iraqi government is leaning toward U.S. nemesis Iran. Several Iraqi military units are fighting under Iranian military leadership alongside Russia in support of the Assad regime. The potential rise of a Syria-Iraq-Iran axis, tied to an increasingly assertive Russia, would be a devastating blow to U.S. imperialism in the region.  
Sharpening Infighting in U.S. Ruling Class
The infighting among U.S. intelligence agencies stems from the bosses’ disagreement over how to handle their imperialist rival. The forces around Trump seem to want to make a temporary deal with Russia; other elements of the ruling class are pushing to go on the offensive. Inter-imperialist relations are inherently unstable; competition and cooperation exist simultaneously. Regardless of whether the U.S. bosses make a short-term deal with Russia or take a more hardened stance, any alliance will be temporary. Given the perpetual economic crisis of capitalism, it could quickly disintegrate into open hostility, a potential prelude to the next world war.
The CIA now claims that Russian cyber-attacks were deliberately conducted to help Trump win the election, and that the U.S. must respond. Politicians of every stripe, including Obama, have vowed to strike back. The CIA accusations follow a series of alleged Russia-Trump connections, based on anonymous leaks from a secret investigation. It’s worth noting that former acting CIA Director Michael Morell endorsed Clinton in the New York Times and claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, called Trump  “a clear and present danger” to U.S. national security (CNN.com, 08/09).
On the other hand, key sections within the FBI were furious that Hillary Clinton was not criminally charged for mishandling classified information. FBI Director James Comey’s October 28 letter to Congress, essentially reopening a closed investigation of Clinton and her aids, clearly damaged Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency (The Intercept, 12/10).
Fight for Communism
After the main-wing U.S. bosses bet on Clinton and lost, millions of workers are still looking for some other reform “leader” to save the day. Their disillusionment with the warmongering, racist Clinton—and their disgust with the gutter-racist and sexist Trump—presents an opportunity for the Progressive Labor Party. It doesn’t mean the masses will automatically flock to us. But many more people seem more open to communist ideas as the capitalist system exposes its true and horrifying nature for all to see.
Winning masses to PLP means fighting back on our job and school and building anti-imperialist, anti-racist struggles. When organized around communist ideas, these struggles build confidence in each other and in our class. The working class is the only force that can end this ruthless imperialist system. Join us!