WASHINGTON, November 12 — PL’ers held an Anti-Capitalism Teach-in at Occupy DC in order to sharpen the debate around the movement’s political analysis and strategies for change. Three long-term occupiers had attended a PLP study-action group and encouraged us to do this. Almost all of the fifty occupiers and friends at this event had previously received CHALLENGE.

Presenters stated that capitalism is based on exploitation and racism. They explained how its internal contradictions, due to the impoverishment of the workers by the ruthless drive for profit by the bosses, creates periodic depressions. They also argued that the state (the government) is a tool of the capitalist system. It must be smashed, not reformed.

Smash the State

Capitalism must be replaced, they continued, with a communist system where the international working class collectively runs society, planning production based on workers’ needs and liberating the creativity of the billions of wage slaves on the planet.  Presenters noted that communists work strategically in all kinds of mass organizations to bring these ideas to broad groups of people, but that special emphasis is put on industrial workers, like the transit workers in DC. The temporary shutdown of the Port of Oakland, for example, could not have happened without the longshore workers.

There are lots of different views among the occupiers, which came out in the discussion following the presentations. Some argued that campaign reform, especially a constitutional amendment to bar corporate contributions to campaigns, would let the elected representations genuinely represent the people. PL’ers responded that the state is part of the capitalist system and controlled by the bosses, and that no reform could change that fact.

Others argued that withdrawing from the capitalist economy by setting up alternative communities, like the occupy sites, was a sound strategy to create a new society.  PL’ers countered that until we gain state power, it’s better to organize on the job to confront the bosses at the point of production.

These debates went on for some time, and will certainly continue at Occupy DC. The validity of our analysis and politics is already gaining traction among some occupiers, and could be demonstrated in the coming period as the crisis of capitalism deepens and the repression and racism by the state intensifies.

BALTIMORE, November 14 — A Progressive Labor Party tent is now part of Occupy Baltimore at McKeldin Square.  On our second night there, a red flag was mounted high on a light pole near PL’s tent.  Some of the occupiers, who have stayed at the square overnight for many weeks, inquired about the flag’s meaning.  PL members replied that it stands for communism.  They explained that red is the communist color, in honor of the thousands whose blood was spilled when the Paris Commune — the first time workers took power, in 1871 — was attacked and defeated by capitalists. 

The PL’ers pointed out that these Communards took bold steps toward equality. They made a rule, for example, that leaders could have no more resources than ordinary workers, and that leaders could be immediately recalled if they failed to serve the working class.  At the end of this conversation, the folks who asked about the red flag were respectful and pleased. They saw the flag as a worthy addition to the occupation.

‘When We Fought the Nazis, You Had Our Back!’

Earlier on, PL members had given three revolutionary communist speeches at various occupation events.  After one of those speeches, a listener approached a Party comrade, gave him a big hug, and said, “You may not remember, but ten years ago when we fought the Nazis, you had our back!”

One issue of CHALLENGE has been widely distributed at the occupation.  With our tent, and more ongoing PL participation within the movement, CHALLENGE will certainly be read by many at McKeldin Square. To up the ante, the Baltimore PL club recently made plans to organize a Party-led, communist study group session at the occupation.  Young comrades have taken the responsibility to make this happen.  Our planned topic will be how to defeat the 1%.  In other words, PL members will be winning workers and youth closer to the understanding that violent revolution is necessary, and that the communist PLP must be built to provide leadership in that struggle.

One of the occupiers, who has been sleeping at the square since the beginning, volunteered to help Party members put up the red flag.  This friendly neighbor said he had no problem putting up a communist flag because our perspective, he said, is the most conservative point of view among Occupy Baltimore activists. 

In reality, the opposite is true.  Fighting for communism is actually the most revolutionary, winning strategy.  This conversation served as a reminder that the death of the old communist movement has left many workers, students, and soldiers discouraged.  They think communism can’t work.  But PL has looked carefully at the strengths and mistakes of the old communist movement.  We have learned much from the heroic experience of those who came before us.  Without question, the working class and its revolutionary Party will sooner or later smash capitalism and build a truly egalitarian world!

LOS ANGELES, November 5 — PL here helped plan a teach-in at Occupy LA titled “Building Working Class Unity – Racism and the Economic Crisis.” We discussed the racist nature of capitalism and argued that racism is the main ideological tool the U.S. ruling class uses to keep working-class people divided and unable to build enough power to fight back. If we are going to build a revolutionary movement to destroy capitalism, we are going to have to start by addressing racism.

We also provided examples of specific forms of racism, such as the recent rise of anti-immigrant policies like the Secure Communities program, which checks prison inmates’ legal status to increase deportation rates. Other examples included the media’s role in building anti-Arab racism and the historical nature of anti-black racism which was key to the birth of capitalism and continues to be critical to the survival of the system.

We held the teach-in at a space occupied by the People’s University Collective (PUC) which is organized by high school teachers in Los Angeles. Participation at the teach-in was good and led to sharp discussions over the racist nature of the system. The teach-in ended with many asking “What do we do next?” Several friends from our schools and workplaces attended the event, which impressed the PUC organizers who recently asked us to come back.

The teach-in on racism is a step forward in PL’s work at Occupy LA. The teach-in also took place a few days after PL helped initiate and lead a march against police brutality in solidarity with the students and workers in Oakland, California who have been under attack by the police (see CHALLENGE, 11/16). The next steps will be to figure out how we can better use our actions at Occupy LA to win students and workers to the idea that we need a Party organization like PL to lead our working-class sisters and brothers in the fight for communism.J

NEWARK, NJ — “Occupy Rutgers! Occupy Newark! Occupy the world!”  These words rang throughout the Rutgers University campus. This was the first rally as part of the Occupy movement that is sweeping across the U.S. and many parts of the globe. Students at this multiracial working-class campus have plenty of concerns. Tuition is high; student debt has skyrocketed; the financial aid office is poorly organized and abusive; graduating students face the worst job market in many years.

Some students just keep slogging on, not daring to think about the larger implications of the situation they face.  But the Occupy movement is attracting students who insist on seeing the big picture, and doing something about it.

The were a number of these new activist-students, a community organizer from the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), and a Marxist professor who described herself as an “unreconstructed 60s radical,” delighted to see students in motion once again.

There are real strengths of the Occupy movement that can be extended and deepened:

Occupy calls into question the sanctity of private property and the law. Why should Wall Street exist at all? Why should capitalist-run governments dictate where and when people express their political views?

The slogan of “we are the 99%” has the advantage of overcoming the divisions — between employed and unemployed, U.S.-born and “foreign-born,” as well as among different “races” — upon which capitalism thrives.

More occupiers recognize the great majority of workers in the United States designated as “middle class” are in fact working class.  As one speaker at the rally asserted, to cheers, “The notion that we are all ‘middle-class’ is bull****!”

While the level of energy at the rally was high, there needs to be sharp political analysis of the potential pitfalls of the Occupy movement.  These include:

An inadequate analysis of economic inequality that focuses on issues such as the under-taxation of corporations and very wealthy individuals.  While it is true that the bosses get away like bandits, contributing less than ever to the public, the fundamental basis of inequality is the exploitation of labor.

The need to understand that capitalism is a system of class rule, not just an “economic” system that can be corrected or controlled through a supposedly democratic “political” system.  Capitalism is, as Marx pointed out, the dictatorship of the owners of the means of production.

While the Occupy movement is fraught with peril, readily open to misleadership by the liberals in the ruling class using electoral politics, it has prompted many young people to think deeply about the real reasons for poverty, racism and war.