The following, written by co-workers of PL members, was set to be given at the celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution in New York City. The event was cancelled in order to participate on the national “Cease Fire” demonstration against Israel’s crimes of genocide of Palestinian families. The speech has been modified into an article for publication so that all readers of CHALLENGE can take inspiration from our communist predecessors.
November 6 should be a celebratory occasion for the international working class, but this year PLP will spend the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in D.C. to protest genocide in Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestine.
This is not only an issue of moral urgency, but should be deeply important to us as communists and as the working class.
Lenin has said
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”
From Gaza to climate catastrophe to labor strikes to migrant crises, these feel like weeks where decades can potentially happen.
It was on this day in 1917 that the Bolshevik party led workers to establish the first ever communist state-freeing thousands from the violence of capitalism and laying the blueprint for revolutionary movements worldwide. Communist workers went on to spread education and healthcare to millions, almost single handedly defeat Nazis, and aided decolonial struggles around the world.
So let's consider Russia in 1917.
Underdeveloped, un-industrialized, and subject to western imperialism, few would have expected Russia to be the place of the first successful communist revolution in history. The Bolshevik party too was small and fringe-it was not expected to lead the first communist revolution in history.
Similarly, it can be hard to imagine a successful revolutionary movement happening for us now, but like the Bolsheviks we have a party, like the Bolsheviks we believe in internationalism, and like the Bolsheviks we want to seize state power too!
Revolutions don’t happen spontaneously, but they also don’t occur without the right circumstances and without the right strategy.
Women workers helped to bring the October Revolution when they marched into Petrograd demanding bread and demanding an end to WWI. But this alone didn’t lead to the success of the October Revolution. They were marching to fix the specific conditions that they found themselves in at that particular moment that became impossible to survive in. Bread and peace were important, but that alone is not communism.
What can we learn from this? The Bolsheviks and used this to educate people and build their base. They recognized revolutionary potential in peasants and in the working class and gave them a political project to work towards. They did not just want bread or an end to the war. They did not want reform. They wanted revolution!
It is our job too, to see revolutionary potential in mass movements. There is revolutionary potential in protests to free Palestine. There is revolutionary potential in movements against racist police. It’s the job of communists to recognize this revolutionary potential and make sure that it is matched with principled political ideology.
The history of zionism rooted in anti-communism
In analyzing the current humanitarian crisis befaling Palestinian workers and kids, we must ask ourselves how we got here and why powerful Imperialist nations like the United States and Great Britain have such vested interest in supporting the ongoing acts of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocidal terror. Much of the conversation comes back to the age-old fear of communist revolution. The same anti-semitism that provoked the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany also spurred support for the zionist cause and establishment of the often mentioned but less contextualized Balfour Declaration of 1922. A large portion of the antisemitism that pervaded Europe during the early 20th century was a manifestation of an association European white nationalists were drawing between Jews and Communist movements of the time. This may sound familiar in the current era when we hear conspiracies about the likes of George Soros orchestrating BLM protests in 2020 or pushing critical race theory in schools. A continuation of this association that has morphed into a dog whistle for anti semitism.
Winston Churchill puts this association very clearly in his 1920 article Zionism Versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People. In reference to the October Revolution he is very explicit in his antisemitism and association of Jewish people with Communism. “There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews.”
His solution, and the solution that many imperial powers propose even to this day was Zionism.
As with the Bolshevik Revolution, we must remember this time period and understand that the actions that followed are crucial to comprehending why the United States and other imperialist nations continue to fund Israel’s atrocities. Furthermore this historical context explains why revolution is the only path forward lest we sacrifice a true liberation of Palestinian workers and workers everywhere.
No war but class war for communism
We don’t want a ceasefire–we want international communism. We don’t want a reformed police force—we want communism. We know that without a fight for communism, all of these struggles are impossible, but in all of these struggles there is the potential for revolution.
The Russian Revolution most famously happened in response to World War I. And in a time when workers around the world are again suffering from the threat of imperial war, this is more relevant than ever.
From Palestine to Brooklyn capitalism harms us all.
At a time when many supposed leftists are revealing themselves to be ideologically aligned with the imperatives of the state, we must remember it was the Bolsheviks who stood firm in their support of the working class while the Mensheviks found themselves willing to support the inhumane clash of Imperial powers known as World War I.
We will continue to say no to imperial war, even when it is unpopular to do so.
But as communist we look to the past to set a path to a brighter future. This path is often mired in darkness and requires us to light a dialectical torch illuminating the footsteps of our comrades and the fundamental contradictions at play between the interests of the ruling class and the working class.
In September, Trudeau formally accused his brother-in-fascism Narendra Modi’s government in India of having orchestrated the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered outside of a Sikh temple in Surrey, BC, in June, and now Trudeau’s cabinet announced that it has obtained intelligence that the murder was a political assassination related to the Indian government’s ongoing persecution of Sikh people and those they suspect of participating in separatist movements in India and abroad.
Besides parliament, Trudeau also briefed the “Five Eyes” alliance members (Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand), and all have put out statements “urging” India to participate in any and all international probes.
Indian officials have called the accusation “absurd,” despite their proven record of persecuting and retaliating against the Sikh population, and Chinese media have choked the allegations up to ‘Western hypocrisy’ (CBC, Al Jazeera, Global Times).
Liberals honor Nazi war criminals
All this posturing shouldn’t fool anyone: the racist Canadian state has never much cared for the welfare of Sikh workers, only now with India joining forces with China in the BRICS formation does Canada seem moved to care about Hindu fascism and political suppression, and no justice for workers in China and India is possible while its rulers pursue imperialist ends.
Later this same month, Canada attempted to follow up its bold stand against India with more political theater, only this time it backfired. To welcome Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on his first in-person visit to the House of Commons, Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, announced the presence of another honored guest in attendance. The speaker called 98 year old Yaroslav Hunka a Canadian “hero,” describing him as a Ukrainian nationalist that fought bravely against Russia in World War II (Guardian). All of parliament and Zelensky gave Hunka a standing ovation.
In truth, those fighting against the Soviet Union in World War II would have been fighting on the side of Nazi Germany. It was quickly revealed that Hunka was a nazi member of the 14th SS Waffen, 1st Galician Division, responsible for the massacres of ethnic Jewish and Polish workers.
The event sparked an international controversy. Canadian liberal fascists like Trudeau and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pleaded ignorance, despite the fact that the Prime Minister’s own right hand, Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, has multiple degrees in 20th century Ukrainian and Russian studies.. Like Hunka, Chomiak escaped Soviet punishment for nazi crimes by fleeing to Canada. Canada resettled more Ukrainian nazis than anywhere else in the West after the war, including 600 of Hunka’s compatriots in the 1st Galician division of the SS.
Even if the rest of the Canadian parliamentarians like Singh and Trudeau feign ignorance, Freeland, with her lineage and education, cannot. She is part of a well-established diaspora of Ukrainian fascists in Canada, who have been usefully re-cast by the Canadian state as refugees of communism, despite the fact that only approximately 10,000 to 12,000 Ukranians fought with the nazis during the war, while millions fought bravely against naziism as communists in the Soviet Union’s Red Army.
After pressure from Jewish ethnic organizations, Anthony Rota apologized for inviting the nazi to parliament and resigned, while slimy Trudeau called the ovation a “mistake” and warned against “Russian propaganda” about World War II, and the current presence of naziism in the Ukrainian national army.
This kind of revision serves to perpetuate anticommunist myths, despite Putin and modern Russia being imperialist, while inoculating the Canadian public to its government’s continued support for Ukraine in the war.
Zelensky’s current tour is looking for increases beyond the 6 billion in money, training, and weapons Canada has already provided (BBC). These kind of farcical political stunts are how the ruling class wins us to endorse and participate in their bloody agendas, and to reject the only path to liberation we have: communist revolution!
What’s BRICS got to do with it?
The war in Ukraine and Western posturing against India are not unrelated, nor are they demonstrations of the ruling class’s care for justice or workers’ lives. BRICS, the economic alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is a direct threat to U.S. hegemony and global economic control. BRICS’ proposal to trade oil outside of the U.S. dollar is not only a huge blow to the U.S., but to the rest of the world that was under the sphere of U.S. imperialism. Canada’s major exports primarily go to other nations in the West, and its economic dependence on gold and oil in these flows is greatly threatened by BRICS’ moves to shift those industries into their control.
Let’s be clear: no movement of capital amongst the ruling class and their fascist governments will benefit workers anywhere, and the resulting wars they will start to resolve the economic contradictions will kill us before we ever see any trickle-down crumbs like higher wages or better access to healthcare.
In both events, the normally divided political class in Canada has been surprisingly united. No member of parliament, not even the phony social democrats, openly questioned the celebration of someone who they knew fought against their own historical alliance in World War II. Celebrating Nazis and fighting “foreign interference,” are ultimately working toward the same destructive end. This hypocrisy is even more blatant now, as countries like Canada and the United States have lined up to denounce antisemitism by arming and funding Israel’s ongoing genocide on Palestinian workers in Gaza and the West Bank.
The truth is that each nation’s ruling class will discipline each other into more and more unity as inter imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and China continues to sharpen. The prospect of World War means not even social democrats will oppose the fascist efforts to save capitalism in crisis. All of the bourgeois politicians are committed to the enrichment of capitalist pigs, as well as the ongoing suppression of communism. That, however, is one war they are set to lose.
As class consciousness grows, and more join Progressive Labor Party worldwide, our class will be strong enough to turn the guns around, and end their war-mongering exploitation of us once and for all.
- Information
Pakistan: Death to the bosses, long live the working class!
- Information
- 03 November 2023 183 hits
PAKISTAN, November 1—Pakistan has long been used by the bosses to serve imperialist interests, and today it is suffering from the crisis of capitalism. But, we are involved in struggles with workers. We use chants like “Down with imperialism…Down with fascism” and “Struggle united to win the revolution.” We need to organize people around our communist line if we want to get rid of all these evils of capitalism.
Capitalist roots
Soon after its inception in 1947 the British colonialists and their local puppets started to lead Pakistan towards capitalism. The Pakistani state always stood firm with capitalist countries in their fight against the USSR. At the time, socialism was being discussed everywhere and the most super exploited members of our class were excited to join different progressive unions and political parties.
The bosses, however, chalked out a plan to counter this with religious propaganda, saying that socialism is against our faith and socialists are agents of India. Bosses started a crackdown against progressive entities; they put political workers behind bars, killed and tortured hundreds of workers and banned leftist political parties. It pushed the country toward political instability, economic uncertainty, intolerance, illiteracy, poverty, sectarianism and fascism.
Now the ruling class here is under severe crises; fundamentalism which was used to bring people against each other has become a monster and uncontrollable by its masters. Society is badly divided into different sectarian and ethnic groups which are contentiously killing each other to spread fear all over the country. Bosses maintain political and economic instability in the country.
We are trying to keep workers informed that bosses are united to exploit the working class. Bosses fight with each other to get the right to exploit and make money, and they have no intentions for the betterment of their followers. Local bosses are puppets of imperialism; they are acting upon the instructions of the IMF, World Bank and other capitalist institutions. Now it is time to unite against exploitation and plundering.
Workers fight back
Now many have started to understand the ruling class’s tactics, and are getting organized in a united struggle against high inflation, exploitation and intolerance. People’s Action Committees are being formed by the nationalist and progressive political workers in Pakistan to fill in the gaps which were created by the ruling class by dividing poor workers into different religious, ethnic, sectarian and communal groups to avoid a unified and cohesive struggle. We are trying to let workers know the exact economic, political and social situation.
People from all segments of society are actively participating in these strikes and sit-ins. People having different political, social and religious backgrounds are uniting against the imposition of unjustified taxes on their basic commodities, especially on electricity.
Companies make profits by extracting taxes from impoverished workers, forced to subsidize industrialists while facing a new tax every morning. Multinational companies are sending back their profits in dollars which is lowering the country’s foreign reserves.
‘Long live the working class’
We are involved in these strikes with our revolutionary line, our friends and comrades in different organizations are explaining the reasons why the working class is getting poorer. We are explaining that reforms are also used by the bosses to avoid revolution.
We used to chant slogans like “Reform or revolution….. Revolution, revolution” and “Stop the plundering….long live poor working class.” We also clarify that we need an international communist struggle to get rid of exploitation, poverty, inequality, injustices and fundamentalism. We will win under the red flag of PLP. Long live communism.
How do you spell fascists? IDF
How do you spell murderers? IDF
*
Hey, hey, ho, ho!
The occupation has got to go!
*
Joe Biden, you can’t hide!
We charge you with genocide
*
They are killing kids overseas...
Shut it down!
They’re killing kids in our streets...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by bombs...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by police...
Shut it down!
If they keep bombing...
Shut it down!
This racist system
Shut it down!
This genocidal system
Shut it down!
This capitalist system
Shut it down!
Shut this racist system down!
Shut this racist system down!
*
U.S., Israel hand in hand
racist murder is the bosses’ plan,
From Palestine to Mexico
The bosses borders, got to go!
Workers and students in New York City have risen up in anger at the fascist collective punishment that the Israeli government is raining down on the workers of Gaza.
Every day, hundreds to thousands have gathered – and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been there in the struggle, pointing out that neither the Big Fascist government of Israel nor Hamas, the Small Fascists they helped install in Gaza, can lead workers to liberation. Most importantly, PLP called for a communist revolution that rids the world of all bosses and their lethal capitalist system.
In the Bronx, around 100 protesters gathered in front of the offices of Richie Torres, a representative to the U.S. Congress. This racist Democratic Party liberal weaponizes his Gay and Latin identity to try to convince his constituents, who live in the poorest Congressional district in the country, to unconditionally support the fascist, genocidal Israeli government. Our line stood out against the backdrop of Palestinian nationalism, as Hamas’ brutal attack has revealed their true nature as capitalists willing to kill workers for control of “their” workers. In fact, a recent survey showed that even Gazans see through Hamas’ lies; 44 percent of those surveyed in the territory said they had no trust in the Hamas government (Foreign Affairs, 10/25). Many of the demonstrators eagerly took our literature, which attacked both groups of bosses. PLP members had conversations with workers, struggling with them to understand that there cannot be a “Free Palestine” without destroying capitalism.
On Friday, October 27, a thousand people gathered in and around Grand Central Terminal, shutting down one of the busiest train stations in the country. After hundreds sat down inside the station, hundreds more took over 42nd Street outside and began marching west. As in the Bronx, the chants were mostly for an immediate ceasefire and for a “free Palestine.” While chanting “Arab, Jewish, Black, and white. Workers of the world unite!” we distributed more than 300 copies of CHALLENGE and 300 leaflets. One demonstrator, after carefully reading our leaflet, called it a “breath of fresh air” because it criticized Hamas while attacking the barbarity of 75 years of Israel’s colonial apartheid state and the ongoing Nazi-like collective punishment of Gaza.
Workers all over the world are demonstrating the powerful sense of solidarity that we have as members of the working class. This display is truly inspiring, lighting the way to a world where the international working class will be all there is, a future where every boss, whether Israeli or Palestinian, U.S. or Russian, will be nothing but a relic of the past. We are struggling in demonstrations, teach-ins and in one-on-one conversations with our friends, students, and coworkers to build communist ideas and our Party – to make this future a reality.
