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Black & Red: W.E.B. Du Bois remembers Stalin as courageous and common
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- 21 February 2022 278 hits
One thing that is always ignored in the fight against racism is the influence the communist movement had. The great William E. B. Du Bois was one of the leading fighters against racism in the 20th century. He founded the NAACP a century ago. After 50 years of antiracist struggle, he joined the Communist Party in 1945, declaring that becoming a communist was “the logic of my life.”
That fact will be well-hidden by the hypocritical U.S. rulers as they “celebrate” Black History Month while preparing another racist war for oil against their rivals China and Russia.
Even more hidden will be the homage Du Bois — a true hero, beloved by the working class, Black and white — paid to the communist world leader, Josef Stalin, on the occasion of Stalin’s death.
(From the National Guardian, March 16, 1953):
Josef Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf, but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also — and this was the highest proof of his greatness — he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate.
Stalin was not a man of conventional learning; he was much more than that; he was a man who thought deeply, read understandingly and listened to wisdom, no matter whence it came. He was attacked and slandered as few men of power have been; yet he seldom lost his courtesy and balance; nor did he let attack drive him from his convictions or induce him to surrender positions which he knew were correct. As one of the despised minorities of man, he first set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality.
His judgment of men was profound. He early saw through the flamboyance and exhibitionism of Trotsky, who fooled the world, and especially America. The whole ill-bred and insulting attitude of liberals in the U.S. today began with our naive acceptance of Trotsky’s magnificent lying propaganda, which he carried around the world. Against it, Stalin stood like a rock and moved neither right nor left, as he continued to advance toward a real socialism instead of the sham* Trotsky offered.
Three great decisions faced Stalin in power and he met them magnificently; first, the problem of the peasants, then the West European attack**, and last the Second World War. The poor Russian peasant was the lowest victim of [czarism], capitalism and the Orthodox Church. He surrendered [to] the Little White Father [the Czar] easily; he turned less readily but perceptibly from his icons; but his kulaks [rich peasants] clung tenaciously to capitalism and were near wrecking the revolution when Stalin risked a second revolution and drove out the rural bloodsuckers.
Then came intervention, the continuing threat of attack by all nations, halted by the Depression, only to be re-opened by Hitlerism. It was Stalin who steered the Soviet Union between Scylla and Charybdis***; Western Europe and the U.S. were willing to betray her to fascism, and then had to beg her aid in the Second World War. A lesser man than Stalin would have demanded vengeance for Munich, but he had the wisdom to ask only justice for his fatherland….The British Empire proposed first to save itself in Africa and southern Europe, while Hitler smashed the Soviets.
The Second Front dawdled, but Stalin pressed unfalteringly ahead. He risked the utter ruin of socialism in order to smash the dictatorship of Hitler and Mussolini. After Stalingrad the Western World did not know whether to weep or applaud. The cost of victory to the Soviet Union was frightful. To this day the outside world has no dream of the hurt, the loss and the sacrifices. For his calm, stern leadership here, if nowhere else, arises the deep worship of Stalin by the people of all the Russias.
Then came the problem of Peace. Hard as this was to Europe and America, it was far harder to Stalin and the Soviets. The conventional rulers of the world hated and feared them and would have been only too willing to see the utter failure of this attempt at socialism. At the same time the fear of Japan and Asia was also real. Diplomacy therefore took hold and Stalin was picked as the victim. He was called in conference with British Imperialism represented by its trained and well-fed aristocracy; and with the vast wealth and potential power of America represented by its most liberal leader in half a century.****
Here Stalin showed his real greatness. He neither cringed nor strutted. He never presumed, he never surrendered....He asked neither adulation nor vengeance. He was reasonable and conciliatory. But on what he deemed essential, he was inflexible. He was willing to resurrect the League of Nations, which had insulted the Soviets. He was willing to fight Japan, even though Japan was then no menace to the Soviet Union, and might be death to the British Empire and to American trade. But on two points Stalin was adamant: Clemenceau’s “Cordon Sanitaire”***** must be returned to the Soviets, whence it had been stolen as a threat. The Balkans were not to be left helpless before Western exploitation for the benefit of land monopoly….
Such was the man who lies dead, still the butt of noisy jackals and the ill-bred men of some parts of the distempered West. In life he suffered under continuous and studied insult; he was forced to make bitter decisions on his own lone responsibility. His reward comes as the common man stands in solemn acclaim.
— W.E.B. Du Bois, March 16, 1953
*capitalist alliance
**17 nations, including the U.S. invaded the Soviet Union, attempting to crush socialism.
***From Greek mythology, “caught between two monsters.”
**** Yalta conference with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, February 1945
*****Stalin insisted that the Balkans and Eastern Europe not be an imperialist launching pad for the West to invade the Soviet Union once again.
100 Copies of CHALLENGE
We’ve been selling 100 copies of CHALLENGE almost every week and have received multiple reactions from the public about our Party’s paper. From the occasional “I have one already” (when they don’t wanna be bothered) to those who throw a dollar and run with the paper. But then there are those conversations that sit with us longer, that leave us with hope and sometimes even a bit of cynicism.
There is this one worker that sells masks on the corner where we sell CHALLENGE who claims to “like capitalism." I asked, why is that? He replied, “[be]cause this (the U.S.) is the only place where anyone can make lots of money or be rich if they try." I told him, “rich people are only possible because of the poor workers they exploit.” He replied, “true, but guess how much money I make?” I told him “you're still only considering yourself; we are talking about the international working class facing war, racism and sexism.” He said, “that’s what I’m saying, I can teach anyone how to do this.” I said “Impossible. If everyone’s a salesperson, who are you going to sell to? You still need workers to exploit. We’re talking about fighting for a world to reach our full potential, this ain’t it!”
For each conversation with someone who is blindly won to capitalism, there are so many more meaningful encounters that eclipse the imperfect ones that give us a real barometer of what the working class is ready and waiting for.
I met this one person working in a Medicare truck. He spoke of how much working class people need to hear what Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is saying. He said, “but how are we gonna get the majority of workers to follow the path to communism?”
Great question. I said, “capitalism is gonna do the majority of that convincing as the path of capitalism is to intensify fascism and workers aren’t gonna be left with much choice as conditions worsen but to fight back. We only need to be large enough to be known as the only alternative to capitalism’s murder machine.” He immediately took the paper, gave me $4 and asked when he’d see me again. I offered next week but his shift rotates so I'll see him next month!
There’s another story of a middle aged woman who took the paper and said,”my mother used to send me out to get this paper.” She was so glad to see it and to know the work continues. And another story of a worker who wanted to volunteer to sell the paper with us.
We are here, all around, communists walking amongst us who just haven’t yet joined PLP. Those times when we feel discouraged come from not offering our line and communism as the only answer to save workers of the future. Continue the struggle. We are the ones we’re waiting for.
*****
The only war worth fighting is a communist class war!
Workers in the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), in Worcester, rallied alongside organizers from the Catholic Worker’s organization outside the City’s federal courthouse. Spurred by several anti-war reform organizations, we organized an action in opposition to war, standing in solidarity with the international working class. These organizations urged workers in several other cities, including Boston and Northampton, to organize similar anti-war actions.“There’s no way that 11,000 American troops are going to make a difference in Ukraine, '' said a member of the revolutionary communist PLP.. “All they’re going to do is make tensions worse (see Editorial, page 2).
It will not matter whether the Russian capitalists or the U.S. capitalists win militarily: hundreds of thousands of workers will die. Workers in the Ukraine will suffer more misery and starvation.
Although our group is small, our communist spirit is mighty. We will use every opportunity– from mobilizing workers for May Day to building an anti-imperialist war movement to grow potential for class war in the name of communism.
*****
Workers call for widespread vaccine distribution
The battle to fight global racism by making Covid-19 vaccines available throughout the world continues (see CHALLENGE, 11/17/2021). Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members continue to help lead this battle that the bosses basically ignore because of their single-minded focus on making money off the pandemic. One battleground is the 25,000 member American Public Health Association (APHA), where in November we will be fighting for a resolution for global vaccination now! A team of organizers including PLP members have already submitted the proposal to the APHA, beginning the laborious process of getting it approved this Fall. It would be great to get such a resolution passed because it could raise awareness about the perfidy of the pharmaceutical capitalists in restricting access to the vaccines. They should waive their patent rights so more of the vaccine can be produced in other countries.
But an even better outcome is the political debate and struggle among the supporters of the resolution. Several more people have begun discussions with us about PLP and the need for communist revolution, not just improvements in public health, which can never be adequate as long as we live in this vicious profit system of capitalism. Meanwhile the struggle on the ground continues as well, with further protests scheduled for March 11 in Washington, DC and April 28 at Moderna headquarters in Boston. If you want sound public health, you need communism!
*****
Staying bold in the Bronx
Our club has been active for some time in an antiracist coalition in the Bronx. We have supported housing for the homeless, and regularly organized against the racist oppression from our local police precinct - even leading a large march and demonstration in front of its doors.
With the election of slick politician and former cop Eric Adams as Mayor of New York City (NYC), we are already seeing an intensification of racist police terror. Tacitly supported by former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio - himself a disgusting supporter of racist police oppression - Adams has already proudly proclaimed a number of fascist steps he will take to "be tough on crime." He is going to reconstitute a "modified" plain-clothed squad to "combat gun violence." De Blasio was forced to disband the previous one because of its notorious record of racist brutality.
Plain clothes make it harder to identify cops as cops, thus making resistance to arrest more common and presenting more excuses for brutal beatings and higher criminal charges. Adams has also been supportive of more extensive racist incarceration, pushing back against progressive bail reform and utterly indifferent to the criminal conditions at Rikers Island (CHALLENGE, 2/2).
The recent killing of Lashawn McNeil shows that, under capitalism, killer cops are not going anywhere. The Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) argues "How does it make sense to send a uniformed officer armed with a gun, baton, badge, and taser to help resolve an argument between a mother and her grown son as was the case in the Harlem incident?”
We are going to renew and raise the level of work with PROP around police killings and the grossly disproportionate percentage of Black and Latin workers who are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated in NYC. While we know that reforms are only a bandage on the festering wound that is capitalism, we need to turn these reform campaigns into schools for communism.
We are continuing to build ties with antiracist groups in nearby neighborhoods to broaden the fight. If we are bold in struggling for our revolutionary line in these next few months, we may win some new workers to join us for May Day!
*****
CHICAGO, January, 24– This racist profit system has stolen yet another child, this time the life of eight-year-old Melissa Ortega. She and her mother were walking down the street in the Little Village neighborhood on January 22 when they got caught in a gang-related crossfire. Melissa was struck twice in the head. A system ruled by the biggest gangsters of all time, the bosses, will foster violence against our class.
To amass profits, bosses must force our class to work under dangerous working conditions, and endure equally miserable living conditions, pushing millions of workers into an early grave. These horrific capitalist conditions—social murder and imperialist wars—create the perfect storm for gang violence.
Capitalism is a genocidal system propped up by racist, sexist exploitation, inequality, and war. Violence enables rulers to oppress workers, ruling over us with fear and impunity. ONLY in a society where education, resources, and means of production are all in the name of nurturing and fostering from each according to commitment, to each according to need we will no have conditions that lead to gang violence. The ultimate murderers are the bosses, who must be smashed through communism.
Communists fight back against capitalist terror
Little Village is primarily a Spanish-speaking lower-income working class community. The bosses are trying to gentrify this historically neglected area, with an added effort to rid gangs. The bosses want us to buy into the racist myth of Black-on-Black crime, to convince us that Black and Latin workers are “violent” and “criminal” to justify police terror and mass incarceration.
However, we must not forget it is the capitalists who make wars, and glamorize and sell violent culture. It is the capitalists who attack us with poverty and police terror. It is the capitalists who sell the guns, and who place them in the hands of arms dealers and gang members, degraded workers, killing our class sisters ,brothers, and children in mainly Black and Latin neighborhoods.
The following Monday, a friend of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and a resident of Little Village texted a Party member to attend a press conference called by his organization to demand justice for Melissa. Word was quickly spread; four PLP members and two longtime friends of PL, attended. Everyone was outraged and called on local politicians to demand mental health clinics for their community but predictably none came.
Those of us in the Party have been working in this area for years in various campaigns, workplaces and mass organizations in order to win workers to the necessity of communist revolution to crush this rotten system and all its misery.
No more victims of capitalism!
We distributed 30 copies of CHALLENGE while speaking with many workers present. One woman thought that we’d have a better society if we all had the same religion. Another woman thought that lack of mental health clinics was the problem. Over half of the city’s public mental health clinics closed in 2013, under the watch of racist former mayor, Rahm Emanuel. This lack of access definitely plays a part, as many working class youth who are oppressed and alienated are deprived of resources that could help them emotionally and socially.
Melissa’s mother, Aracelia Leanos, said in a statement that the shooter was a victim of the system himself and forgave him, knowing that he will have to live with her daughter’s murder for the rest of his life. But the fact is that we are all victims of capitalism with its racist and sexist culture of individualism, unemployment, underemployment, rotten schools and medical care.
And yes, the shooter, 16-year old Emilio Corripio and his 27-year-old accomplice, are victims of capitalism. But we still have a choice: become communists and join PLP in building a communist movement where we turn the guns around on the bosses to get rid of this rotten system of capitalism. We have to intensify our efforts to win our class to the Party or we run the risk of more workers joining the reformist dead-end of capitalist politics and becoming politicians for the super-rich capitalists, turning to religion, racist cynicism, or even joining the predatory street gangs.
The list of casualties keeps getting longer. Under capitalism, “justice” looks like killer cops like Jason Van Dyke serving a six year sentence then being set free for “good behavior” after shooting Black teenager LaQuan McDonald 16 times. Kyle Rittenhouse being declared ‘innocent’ by the U.S. court system after killing two antiracists in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Which side are we on?
Choose the working class
Be they the cops and sheriffs, the “legal” foot soldiers for the capitalist class who killed working-class youth like Adam Toledo in the streets of Chicago or Valentina Orellana Peralta and Daniel Elena Lopez in Los Angeles. Or whether they are the petty capitalist-influenced gangs, we have to ask ourselves which side are we on—the capitalists or the international working class?
If you choose the international working class, join PLP and continue to build the international communist movement to achieve a better world—a communist world where we take care of each other and help each other reach our human potential. It is our responsibility as communists to win our young friends in Little Village and everywhere to join PLP and fight for a just future.
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As fascists fight fascists, workers must choose communism
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- 04 February 2022 281 hits
On January 11, the U.S. Justice Department—a lethal weapon for the world’s most deadly state terrorists, the U.S. ruling class—announced a new division to target “domestic terrorism.” One year after the assault on the Capitol by loyalists of Donald Trump, the vicious battle between two factions of U.S. capitalism is getting even hotter. Controlled by the liberal fascist bosses and their Democratic Party, at least for now, both the Injustice Department and the U.S. Congress have launched sweeping investigations of Trump and his top confederates. These finance capital liberals, also known as the Big Fascists (see glossary, page 6), are taking another step toward full-blown fascism.
To date, more than 700 people have been arrested for their roles in the January 6 rebellion, including 375 for felonies (Washington Post, 1/11). Eleven Trump associates have been charged with crimes (CNN, 7/21/21). The New York Times, the liberal bosses’ leading propaganda machine, is making a case to charge Trump himself with a scheme to confiscate voting machines (2/1). This is just the beginning. The Big Fascists’ media are calling for new laws to more severely prosecute any and all threats to their agenda (TIME, 1/24).
In the fight between Big Fascists and Small Fascists, our class must be clear-eyed about capitalist democracy. We do not hold state power. Capitalism is a dictatorship against the working class, while communism will mean the dictatorship of the working class. Only then do we get to decide how to run society. Make communist revolution with the international Progressive Labor Party.
Big Fascists, big problems
The Big Fascists, represented by the largest banks and multinational companies like ExxonMobil and Google, are tied to the old liberal world order and expansive U.S. imperialism. To protect their trillions in profits, and to counter rising imperialist gangs in China and Russia, they bankroll 750-plus armed bases around the globe and spend more on the U.S. military than the next 10 nations combined (aljazeera.com, 9/10/21)—a big potential advantage in the next world war.
But unlike China and Russia, the Big Fascists are hobbled by splits in their ranks. The myths of liberal democracy--“free and fair” elections, a government that “plays by the rules”--constrain them. Meanwhile, the Small Fascists, the domestically oriented capitalists fronted by Trump, are free to more openly cheat and steal their way into power while leveraging gutter racism and sexism to mobilize their base. The January 6 insurrection was a warning shot of more to come. To prepare for war and build a united, patriotic, multiracial military, the Big Fascists need to use their legal apparatus to crush the Small Fascists and discipline the whole capitalist class.
If and when they succeed, the liberal rulers will proceed to the second essential element of fascism: an all-out campaign to mislead, pacify, and attack the working class, first by eliminating communists and anyone else not with the program. The Joe Biden administration’s offensive against "domestic terrorists," including modern Klansmen like the Oath Keepers, is aimed both to destroy the Big Fascists’ enemies and to confuse the working class. As CHALLENGE consistently points out, the liberal bosses are the most virulent racists and our most dangerous class enemies. Why is that? Because they have a greater ability to deceive honest, anti-racist workers, and a far greater--and proven--capacity for mass murder, from Hiroshima to Vietnam to Iraq.
While the liberal rulers still have the loyalty of their generals and more “dark money” than the Trumpers to buy elections (NYT, 1/29), there is no guarantee they will come out on top. After continuing to bungle the bosses’ response to Covid-19, Biden is deeply unpopular. Though the Republicans are a minority party, they already control the U.S. Supreme Court and most state legislatures. They appear likely to retake the U.S. Senate (cnn.com, 11/21/21) and the House of Representatives this fall (New York Post, 12/31/21). Trump is a narrow betting favorite to be returned to the White House in 2024 (bonus.com, 2/1).
For the Big Fascist liberals, a Small Fascist sweep would have dire implications for what's left of the old U.S. empire. As president, Trump was soft (to say the least) on Russian President Vladimir Putin. He showed disdain for traditional U.S. allies and is distrusted by liberal bosses in Europe and NATO. As more than a hundred thousand Russian troops have massed on the border with Ukraine, Small Fascist Republicans in Congress are showing no appetite for inter-imperialist confrontation. Said Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana: “Despite claims by war hawks on both sides of the aisle, it is not in our national interest to spill American blood and treasure in Ukraine” (msn.com, 1/22).
As Russia advances on Ukraine and expands its military influence in Africa (cnbc.com, 9/13/21), and China becomes the ally of choice for bosses in the Middle East (New York Times, 2/2), the Big Fascists may be running out of time.
Liberal democracy = liberal fascism
In the history of class society, going back to the ancient Greeks (the slave-owning forerunners of the U.S. Founding Monsters), democracy has always been a dictatorship of the ruling class. Today's liberal democracy is an absolute dictatorship of the finance capitalist bosses. When the Big Fascists cry that democracy is under threat, it means they are fearful that their control is in jeopardy.
Voting is a con game to foster the illusion that workers decide what happens in society. Little more than a year after Biden was elected as the “compassionate” alternative to Trump, he’s committed one anti-worker atrocity after the next: normalizing Covid slaughter, caging children at the border, cheerleading for more funding for killer kkkops.
But that’s business as usual under capitalism. What's new is that the liberal rulers--divided, corrupt, getting weaker by the day—are seeing that they can no longer govern in the old way. Though they’d prefer to keep the charade of democracy, they can’t allow it to usher their Small Fascist rivals into power. (It’s worth noting that Adolph Hitler became Germany’s chancellor through democratic elections, though the Nazi Party never polled more than 37 percent of the vote.) The U.S. Justice Department’s renewed focus on domestic terrorism is a preliminary move to put the liberals’ internal competition out of business—and, sooner than later, to go after other “enemies of the state,” including Progressive Labor Party.
We will never liberate the working class from the bondage of capitalism as long as we hold illusions about what we control. Under liberal democracy, the capitalist bosses own our labor and the means of production. The rulers control the institutions of the state: the government, the media, the schools, the military. What we control is our ability to build class unity and consciousness by advancing class struggle. Our Party and our class are fighting back from Haiti to Colombia to Pakistan, from Mexico to East Africa. We’re exposing the dead-end identity politics that Black mayors are weaponizing against Black and Latin workers in Los Angeles and Chicago and New York and Newark. Smash the rulers’ democracy! Fight for communism! Join PLP!
Torrance, CA, January 30—Workers and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members refused to stay silent since racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic text messages by Torrance police officers, going back to 2018, were revealed to the public. In the spirit of fightback, two mutual aid organizations, which PL members work in, called for a rally at Torrance City Hall. The rally called attention to the racist and sexist history of not just the Torrance Police Department (TPD) but the entire capitalist system that policing upholds. Under capitalism all KKKOPS protect the ruling class and their property and uphold a system that relies on racist super-profits. They routinely criminalize Black, Latin, Asian, and immigrant workers to ensure that our class brothers and sisters remain exploited and fearful. Only with communist revolution will workers have the power to weed out capitalism, the root of all crime and oppression, and smash racist police once and for all.
A history of racism in the Torrance PD
This whole texting scandal came to light when the department started investigating former officers Cody Weldon and Christopher Tomsic, who spray painted a swastika on a car impounded in a mail fraud investigation. So far 13 officers have been named by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office as being active in the text exchanges, including Anthony Chavez and Matthew Concannon, who murdered a Black man, Christopher De’Andre Mitchell, in 2018. No one has been charged but thus far 85 criminal cases these officers were involved in have been dismissed (LA Times, 12/08/21).
These disgusting text messages show the contempt cops hold for the working-class communities they patrol. This isn’t a case of a few bad apples but a system that is rotten to the core.
Racism means: we have to fight back!
About 30 people showed up for the rally, which had a loose plan for chants and speeches. Select reform demands included firing all officers involved in the text messages, creating a civilian oversight commission; and, ultimately, abolition of the police. While we understand these measures won’t solve the crisis for the working-class, making these demands helps our class instill confidence in each other, our fellow comrades, and sharpens our consistent struggle and fightback.
A PL member led most of the chanting and encouraged people to speak on the bullhorn. The PLer gave a brief speech about the history of police and argued that to ultimately get rid of racist policing we need to organize to overthrow capitalism. Participants responded enthusiastically and some said later that this was the first action they had attended and they were eager to participate in the future.
The mass groups who organized the action mainly focus on direct mutual aid but also see homelessness, poverty, and police harassment as tied to this oppressive, capitalist system. Party members must be bolder in pushing for our revolutionary line as we build community support and fight side by side for reforms.
Eventually our class will see a communist revolution, but we can only do that by building an international working-class party. Join PLP and worker by worker, we will smash this racist system!
