On Thursday, June 18, Freedom Road Socialist Organization will be hosting a webinar recapping its recent 10th Congress, which marked a genuine advance in our efforts to build a serious revolutionary communist organization in the United States.

“FRSO Congresses are the highest body of our organization,” explained FRSO Standing Committee member Chrisley Carpio, “It’s the place where we make a concrete analysis of concrete conditions and use that as a basis for our plans and tactics in the coming period.”

Each FRSO Congress produces a Main Political Report, which contains sections on the U.S. Economy, the domestic political landscape, and the international situation. Those documents are available at frso.org/congress.

Speakers will include Political Secretary Mick Kelly, Organizational Secretary Tom Burke, and Standing Committee members Syd Loving, Chrisley Carpio, and Masao Suzuki about the organization’s recent work, its extraordinary growth, and its tasks for the coming period.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, June 18 at 5pm Pacific, 6pm Mountain, 7pm Central, and 8pm Eastern.

Register here: https://www.tinyurl.com/frso626

#RevolutionaryTheory #FRSO #Congress #10thCongress #Feature

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following greetings from communist and workers parties to the 10th Congress of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Workers Party of Belgium (PTB)

Your Congress convenes at a critical juncture in the development of the people’s struggle and the accelerating decline of U.S. Imperialism. The U.S. war machine has become ever more aggressive under the second Trump administration, yet this aggression signals not strength, but desperation as it faces rising competition and intensifying resistance at home and abroad.

Notably, the U.S.-Israeli genocide on Palestine failed to exterminate the Palestinian people, and their military forces did not succeed in defeating Iran.

Meanwhile, the American people have demonstrated the power of organized struggle against monopoly capitalism. From the resistance against mass deportations and ICE violence to demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine and opposition to the war on Iran, the movement is growing. The mobilization of a record eight million people in the streets during the recent “No King’s Day” protest illustrates how these protests are expanding among the broad public, proving that the system is losing its grip.

We recognize the role FRSO has played in these battles. Your leadership in the fight against mass deportations, your solidarity with Palestine, and your active participation in the trade union, African American, and Chicano liberation movements represent vital organizing work within the broader coalition of the oppressed.

As you gather during a period of significant organizational growth—attested by the recent purchase of a national office to house your operations—we wish your delegates productive deliberations. May your congress strengthen the united forces necessary to take on monopoly capitalism and advance on the road to socialism.

Solidarity,

Bert De Belder

Department of International Relations

PVDA-PTB

Mouvement National Congolais – Lumumba (MNC/L)

Dear Comrades Delegates to the 10th Congress of the FRSO,

On behalf of the C.P.C. of the MNC/Lumumba and on behalf of all the Lumumbist sympathizers of our country, allow us to present to you our warm greetings and our best wishes of solidarity on the occasion of the Tenth Congress of your organization.

Through your socialist organization, we cordially greet all the workers of the United States of America. We salute the American people and express support and solidarity to them as they confront the crisis of a panicked imperialist system in their struggle against the austerity measures of the American administration.

We also take the opportunity of the FRSO’s 10th Congress to present the situation of our country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as that of our organization, the MNC/Lumumba.

This Congress is being held at a very important moment in the international situation and our struggle. Yes (!) at a very important time.

The unipolar world, dominated by the United States of America and its NATO allies, is giving way to the multipolar world, which we all support around the world. Despite this, US imperialism, the Zionists, and their European vassals refuse this change. They are stoking wars in the Caribbean, Africa, Ukraine, and the Middle East in the hope of delaying this shift in the balance of power. Our country, the D.R.C., is facing a vast conspiracy by imperialism and the Zionists.

Since the coup d’état that interrupted the national liberation process on September 14, 1960, and throughout the various regimes that took power, nothing has led to any change of quality in favor of the Congolese people. The so-called “free” elections and the alternating multiparty system have not brought peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo, nor to the rest of Africa. All those who speak of peace, life and freedom cannot, of course, remain indifferent to the negative process that is taking place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including in the African Great Lakes region, the AES area, the Caribbean, Ukraine and the Middle East.

Against the fundamental interests of the African peoples, our continent is being transformed before our eyes into a battlefield between the Western imperial powers and the forces of national liberation.

The ruling circles of the Western imperialist powers, especially the United States of America and the European Union, are stirring up distrust and animosity among the African populations, using: ethnic and religious divisions; inequality of social, economic and cultural development; and national peculiarities, among others.

The African continent, which experienced the slave trade and colonization, still lives today under a neo-colonial system of imperialism, and remains an arena of fratricidal conflicts that take hundreds of thousands of human lives and cause immense material damage.

Dear Comrade Delegates,

Any oppressive power, wherever it comes from, from outside or within, cannot reign without a powerful network of collaborators among the population. Similarly, the demise of a tyrannical regime can only be ensured by the political death of all its leaders and key collaborators.

In Congo, our country, from the overthrow of Lumumba’s Congolese Central Government to the present day, the general tendency in the democratic movement has been and is towards conciliation with the leaders and enforcers of the neo-colonialist regimes. If this tendency is not overthrown, the Congo will never experience a radical change in quality, because it will be the collaborators of the prior oppressive regimes who will be at the head of the Congo.

The attitude to be taken towards the Congolese oligarchs by the MNC/Lumumba is very clear. We have always spoken since October 1958 on behalf of the majority of Congolese. It is our principled position that distinguishes us from those who fish in troubled waters [opportunists]. It’s clear that the fifth column is not disarming. It becoming active and intensifying the confusion. Their objective is to maintain themselves by trying to be seen as saviors. The dispersion of the Congolese oligarchs between the sacred union of the presidential majority, the legal opposition, and the AFC/M23 “rebellion” does not affect the system in any way.

The Congolese National Movement/Lumumba is reorganizing itself on a new basis with a very clear political program on the political, ideological, economic, social, cultural and military levels to mobilize and organize the Congolese popular masses in the struggle against the Congolese imperialists and oligarchs. Infact, the CPC of the MNC/Lumumba takes this opportunity to launch an appeal for the solidarity of Friendly organizations in order to support us morally, materially and diplomatically in the accomplishment of our weighty mission.

Long live the FRSO!

Long live the 10th Congress!

Oppressed people of the world, unite!

The MNC/Lumumba: UNITY – STRUGGLE – INDEPENDENCE!

Homeland or Death!

Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD)

Dear Comrades of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, USA!

The Central Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) extends warm and revolutionary greetings to your 10th Congress, and wishes the Congress great success.

Your Congress is taking place at a time when organized, active mass resistance against the fascist course of the Trump administration is growing steadily. This is becoming a serious obstacle to Trump’s plans for a fascist restructuring of the U.S. state. The development of resistance in the USA, especially the connection between the working class in the factories and the active mass resistance in residential areas, is a great source of encouragement for people worldwide who are confronted with a growing fascist trend. Imperialism is incapable of solving even a single one of humanity’s problems. It can only bring fascism, war and environmental destruction. Revolutionaries have a great responsibility to utilize the potential of this development to strengthen the anti-fascist united front, to propagate the necessity of revolutionary change and a socialist future, and to build revolutionary parties with strong roots in the working class. As a member of the International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organizations (ICOR) and the International Anti-Imperialist United Front against Fascism, War and Environmental Destruction, we are committed to worldwide unification in this spirit. We can learn a great deal from one another among the revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces around the world.

We know that you play a very active role in the struggles in the USA, and we have often reported on this in our media. Your struggle requires determination and courage. We are very happy to hear that you are strengthening your ranks in this process. The establishment of a house for your national office will certainly enrich your work. The MLPD assesses that we are experiencing a worldwide pre-revolutionary ferment, which does not yet constitute a revolutionary situation, but the development is clearly moving in that direction. This also requires a higher quality of international cooperation and proletarian internationalism.

In the past, our organizations have often conducted mutual visits and discussions in friendship and solidarity, which we gladly remember. We look forward to closer practical cooperation in the future in the struggle against fascism and war, and to further discussion of the ideological and political questions that arise today, such as the role—according to our analysis—of neo-imperialist countries like Iran.

Please keep us informed about the results of your important Congress and further developments in the USA.

In this spirit, we wish your Congress great success!

Long live socialism!

Gabi Fechtner

Chairwoman of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany

Communist Construction (Kommunistischer Aufbau)

Dear Comrades,

We send our warmest greetings to your 10th Congress and all its delegates.

From our own history, we know the special significance a congress holds for a Marxist-Leninist organization. Especially in these dynamic times of class struggle and as our organization continues to grow, the congress serves as a vital means of strengthening and unifying the organization.

As a relatively new organization, we are eagerly following your development and look forward to learning more about you—about your role in the protest movements against U.S. imperialism, its wars, and its reactionary policies both abroad and at home.

In the coming period, as Marxist-Leninists, we want and must urgently increase and expand contact and exchange between revolutionary and communist organizations. Let us learn from one another and wage a common struggle, across all national borders, together against imperialism, its wars, and the exploitation and oppression of the working class worldwide.

Once again, we wish your organization and all delegates a successful convention, productive discussions, and groundbreaking resolutions to address the challenges ahead.

Revolutionary and red greetings

Kommunistischer Aufbau / Communist Construction

CARC Party

Greeting to the FRSO 10th Congress

When the workers of the capitalist countries have gained confidence in their own strength and the awareness that they are capable of getting along without the bourgeoisie—and not only of demolishing the old, but also of building the new (socialism)—this will mark the beginning of the end of capitalism and the surest sign of the victory of the proletarian revolution (I. Stalin, Political Report of the Central Committee – December 18, 1925)

Dear comrades,

the CARC Party wishes your 10th Congress every success; we are following it with the utmost attention.

The imperialists of your country are the first, along with the Zionists, to drag the world into world war. It is not only and not so much your task to oppose the imperialist bourgeoisie of your country and prevent it from devastating the world with its infamous attacks, but above all, you are offered the opportunity to overthrow it. On the eve of World War I, Lenin predicted that either the socialist revolution would prevent the war or the communists would turn the war into a revolution. This is what happened in the countries where the working class, led by its Communist Party, succeeded in winning, building the first socialist countries, foremost among them the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. But it has not yet succeeded in doing so in any imperialist country; that is why we are once again embroiled in a world war. Today, for communists, the situation is such that either we bring about a decisive leap forward in the socialist revolution in the imperialist countries—the conflagration that will liberate the world from the imperialist system and thereby halt the spread of World War III—or the destructive spiral into which the rule of the imperialist bourgeoisie is dragging the masses of most of the world will continue to worsen.

You confirm to us that times are changing. Your Secretary writes in the preface to the book on The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism by J. Sykes that we are at a turning point, that a new communist movement is rising in the U.S. and a mobilization of the masses is taking place the likes of which have not been seen since the 1960s and 1970s. We have seen, after those years, the communist movement retreat, up to the fall of the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the period of dark reaction that that fall would generate, as Stalin foresaw. Now that period is coming to an end and the resurgence is beginning—a leap into the new wave of the proletarian revolution.

The qualitative leap of the new wave of the proletarian revolution and the rebirth of the communist movement is the conquest of power in one or more imperialist countries, foremost among them the U.S., which acts as the world’s policeman, and Italy, where the Vatican is headquartered. It is up to the communist movement in the U.S. to eliminate imperialism in their country, just as it is up to the communist movement in Italy to eliminate the Vatican, but the elimination of both concerns the entire world communist movement.

Our main commitment lies in advancing the socialist revolution in Italy, but at the same time we are paying increasing attention to the communist movement in the U.S., of which you are a part. The commitment, in this case, is to forge ties in three areas.

One area is the development of mutual understanding and joint action. The retreat of the communist movement has led to a weakening of relations among the various organizations that compose it at the international level, to the extent that communists in one country know very little about the conscious and organized communist movement in other parts of the world, and joint action remains at an embryonic stage or is confined to one or another of the international coordinating bodies that do not communicate with one another. Overcoming this limitation is an aspect of the ongoing rebirth of the communist movement.

A second area is mutual solidarity against repression. The imperialist bourgeoisie, in this terminal phase of the economic, political, social, and cultural crisis, is displaying all its ferocity, and repression is a weapon it resorts to with increasing frequency and intensity. The CARC Party is a component of the Caravan of the (New) Italian Communist Party, the collective of organizations and individuals following the (New) Italian Communist Party toward the goal of making Italy a new socialist country, and this Caravan has always faced repression, since its founding more than forty years ago—the same period when the FRSO was founded. It faces it today as well, with the repressive action against the CARC Party on April 21, searches, seizures of materials based on a charge that is the same one with which the fascist regime imprisoned Antonio Gramsci and led him to his death, and with fines of thousands of euros for demonstrations against fascists and Zionists. We would like to thank FRSO here, which was among the first communist organizations—among many—to express their solidarity with us at the international and national levels. Mutual cooperation in confronting repression is open.

A third arena is frank and open debate. The course of the revolutionary process in the U.S. differs from that in Italy in many specific ways, but the two processes also share universal, common aspects regarding which debate is essential. Above all, we share the fact that FRSO and P.CARC operate in imperialist countries—countries where the socialist revolution has not yet triumphed, where the ground is therefore new and unexplored. For this reason, exchange is essential—sharing what we discover, discussing the assessment of the communist movement, the analysis of the ongoing crisis, the regimes the bourgeoisie adopts in imperialist countries, and the strategy for seizing power. Therefore, we have begun studying your theoretical works, and we will present you with a summary of ours.

Among the various themes, the first is that of party building. In Italy, we have succeeded in this endeavor with the founding of the (new) Italian Communist Party—a party established clandestinely, just as Lenin and Stalin’s Bolshevik Party taught a communist party must be in order to operate continuously toward the conquest of power and carry out its activities of recruitment, planning, training, guidance, organization, propaganda, mobilization, and leadership despite all the efforts the bourgeoisie makes to obstruct it, isolate it from the masses, and destroy it. The best wish we can offer your Congress is that it be a decisive step in the establishment of a new communist party in the U.S. The time is ripe for this to happen, and when it does, it will be an indelible sign of the rebirth of the communist movement worldwide.

Long live the rebirth of the international communist movement!

Long live the mobilization of the masses in the United States of America!

Long live the Freedom Road Socialist Organization!

CARC Party

International Working Group

Revolusi Indonesia

Statement of Solidarity

At the 10th Congress

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

The power of the 1% of the big American international monopoly bourgeoisie is not only responsible for the crisis and suffering of the working class in the United States. Since replacing Britain as the world’s largest imperialist state and power, the most powerful reactionary class in the United States has been responsible for the crisis and suffering of billions of oppressed and exploited people in various countries maintained as its colonies and semi-colonies.

The people of the United States face one of the most difficult periods in the history of their class struggle. The drastic decline of U.S. dominance in industry, agriculture, and foreign trade has given rise to various forms of oppression against the working class within the United States as well as against the peoples of colonies and semi-colonies, and even weaker capitalist nations. Competition among financial oligarchies has become far more intense and fierce. The move by many nations to restrict the use of the Dollar to avoid the burden of the crisis has accelerated this decline. The struggle for energy and natural resources is becoming increasingly difficult for the United States to win through conventional politics.

The economic decline has had a significant impact on the decline of the liberal democratic system that has long been revered and promoted throughout the country. Currently, in the eyes of people from various nations, the United States is nearly on par with non-industrialized nations in terms of protecting the basic rights of its people. President Donald J. Trump’s use of police actions backed by the military to enforce federal government policies and programs—including immigration policies and anti-LGBT policies—has drawn opposition not only from the oppressed and exploited people of America but from the entire world. Although fascism is recognized as the most reactionary offspring of the capitalist system, people in many countries are still shocked to witness the blatant suppression of freedom of speech on college campuses during the campaign against Israeli Zionist aggression against Gaza-Palestine. Also, whether they believe it or not, they witness the brutality of the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in every operation.

Alongside the intensive anti-war campaign by the FRSO and other revolutionary movements, it is clear that the war of aggression against Venezuela, the war of aggression against Iran, the unlimited support for Zionist Israel in the war of aggression in Gaza-Palestine, the interventionist war in Nigeria and several African nations, and the U.S.-NATO proxy war through Ukraine against Russia are merely a reflection of America’s frustration in maintaining its dominance. Even the re-election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States is proof in itself that the crisis is extremely acute and requires a war-mongering president to resolve it!

The 10th FRSO Congress holds special subjective significance amidst highly favorable objective national and international conditions for the growth and development of the revolutionary movement in both imperialist and semi-colonial countries. The subjective state of the FRSO is shaped by the objective reality of oppression and exploitation by the 1% reactionary class in the United States, in Latin America, and throughout the world. In addition to its intense class struggle in the United States, the FRSO has demonstrated proletarian international solidarity with national and class struggles in various semi-colonial and weaker capitalist countries, grounded in the powerful teachings of Marxism-Leninism. The FRSO takes Karl Marx’s thesis as its guiding principle: that “a country cannot be free while simultaneously oppressing another country,” and that “Labor in white skin cannot emancipate itself where the black skin is branded.”

The American people, just like the people in other countries, have long demanded the birth of a Proletarian Party that is truly conscious of its historical role in leading the class struggle through violence. Especially in a crisis situation like the present. The resolutions of the 10th FRSO Congress, therefore, are eagerly awaited not only by the working class and the oppressed and exploited people of the United States—who need a proletarian socialist revolution—but also by national and class struggles in semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries like Indonesia.

Victory to the American Proletarian Socialist Revolution!

Long live the FRSO!

Oppressed and Exploited People of the World, Unite!

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)

Revolutionary greetings, comrades!

The Communist Party of the Philippines extends a militant salute to our comrades in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization on the occasion of your 10th Congress. Your gathering represents a significant victory for the working class and all other exploited and oppressed peoples here within the belly of the imperialist beast. It comes at no better a critical time, as contradictions within the United States and around the world are intensifying at an unprecedented rate.

Everywhere around us, the assault of imperialist US continues to squeeze people dry and exploit people to death. In the United States, imperialism’s assault on the working class has deepened hunger, poverty, and misery among the masses. Capitalists have increasingly made contractual work the norm, stripping workers of regular jobs and benefits, and making conditions harder for collective organizing and action. Trump has continued cracking down on trade unions on the one hand, while on the other co-opting union leadership into a labor aristocracy subservient to the bourgeoisie interests, especially through the illusion of his “America First” policy that promises to bring back industry and jobs to the country. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has slashed budgets for basic social services, especially healthcare, while providing no relief for people beset with the high inflation crisis spurred by his own tariff policies and the imperialist war on Iran.

Under particular threat is the huge reserve army of migrant labor that U.S. imperialism has consciously amassed. ICE, corporate-run detention centers, big tech companies, and others agents have formed an unholy partnership that simultaneously tears families apart, scapegoats migrants for the problems created by the capitalist class, and extracts super profits from their suffering. Meanwhile, violent state repression toward African Americans, Chicanos, and other oppressed nationalities continues unabated, as does the state’s desperate attempt to dampen the flames of the pro-Palestine solidarity movement. This domestic turmoil is unfolding in the context of heightened U.S. military aggression and intensifying increasingly aggressive U.S. imperialist intervention abroad, including in Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Palestine, and the Philippines.

But rather than signaling that the U.S. imperialists may appear to be strong and powerful, in fact, these are all signs of its desperate attempt to maintain power and global hegemony amid strategic decline. The military aggression against Venezuela and Iran and threats against other sovereign nations, show signs of the imperialist beast backed into a corner, clawing and claiming larger territories lashing out in order to survive. The work FRSO has done to unmask and fight back against this beast—especially in the midst of extreme economic and political crisis—serves as an inspiration to us all.

We have witnessed your determination in building a militant labor movement driven by mass struggles on the shop floor. We have learned from how you stand up to political repression—whether from the police, FBI, or ICE—and inspire the masses to stand with you and organize for their collective rights. We have stood alongside each other in re-enlivening an anti-war movement with a clear position on opposing imperialist wars while supporting people’s wars for national liberation in their own countries.

Your bravery in the face of the capitalists — whether in the workplace, in the halls of government, or in the dens of the war hawks — has won you concrete gains and victories for working and oppressed people around the country. We are overjoyed to hear that FRSO has experienced extraordinary growth in the course of these struggles, recognizing the crucial task you are carrying out in equipping these broad movements with the weapon of Marxism-Leninism to strike at the heart of the enemy.

At the same time, we are humbled and deeply appreciative of your dedication to proletarian internationalism, as demonstrated by your unrelenting solidarity with national liberation movements, including the People’s Democratic Revolution being waged in the Philippines under the leadership of the CPP. Your support is needed more now than ever. As a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country dominated by the joint class dictatorship of the big comprador bourgeoisie, and big landlord class and bureaucrat capitalists—all under the direction of U.S. imperialism—the Filipino people feel acutely the worsening contradictions of the current order. The deadly hunger already experienced by the toiling masses has been exacerbated by the sharp economic crash deterioration following the U.S.’ war on Iran, coupled with the refusal of the reactionary Philippine state to heed the people’s demands to repeal burdensome taxes and other anti-people and anti-poor policies and measures, that would mean lowering their profit margin or angering their U.S. corporate patrons. The self-serving nature of those in power was thoroughly unmasked in massive corruption scandals made public last year, as well as in the current political circus between the Marcos and Duterte dynasties playing out ahead of the 2028 Philippine presidential elections.

Beyond acting in their own interests, however, the reactionary classes of Philippine society are wholly subservient to their imperialist masters. With dizzying speed, the entire country is being made into the U.S.’ forward base in its campaign to encircle and contain China and assert dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. More de facto and secret U.S. military bases are being built across the country, which house both U.S. weapons and troops under the guise of “rotational” presence. Just this month, the U.S. military “assisted” by Philippine militaries — the Armed Forces of the Philippines — fired a Tomahawk missile from a civilian airport into a civilian community more than 600 kilometers away, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who were in the path of the low-flying missile, in a clear act of war provocation against China. The firing was part of the Balikatan war games—just one of over 500 joint military exercises set to happen this year that all aim to project power and heighten tensions with China. Even the Philippine economy is being transformed to serve the U.S.’ war economy, with the push to establish a US-controlled “economic security zone,” along with plans of building an ammunition factory, refueling hub for warships, and other infrastructure already under way.

The biggest obstacle to the complete transformation of the Philippines into a launching pad for U.S. imperialist war is the Filipino people’s democratic revolution being waged through protracted people’s war. For 57 years, the Communist Party of the Philippines has led this struggle for national and social liberation, and has spread the fire of revolution across the archipelago. It has thwarted every attempt of every reactionary U.S.-backed regime to destroy it, making a fool of presidents and generals who promise every year to end it by some arbitrary deadline.

Still, the state’s fascist terror unleashed against revolutionary forces and the broad masses of people struggling for change is very much a reality, especially in the Philippine countryside. Last month, the Filipino people suffered a loss that continues to weigh heavily on us all. On April 19, the butchers of the Philippine military committed a massacre—a war crime—by indiscriminately firing upon communities in Toboso, Negros Occidental. Nineteen people were martyred that day: ten Red fighters of the New People’s Army and nine civilians, including people local to the area as well as a student leader, journalists, peasant organizers, and community researchers who went to Negros to learn from among the peasant masses. Among them were Lyle Prijoles and Kai Sorem, two Filipino-American activists who were leaders in the Filipino community in the US, leaders who chose to sacrifice their comforts living in the U.S. to serve the toiling masses back home.

The enemy would like to portray this massacre as a strategic victory against communism. It is the opposite. In a statement following the Toboso massacre, the New People’s Army-Northern Negros under the Roselyn Jean Pelle Command reminds us that the very reason the U.S.-Marcos regime targeted and continues to target Negros is because of the strength of the revolution there. They state that in 2025 alone, “Party membership grew 30 percent” and “new branches were formed in broad areas.” Further, “membership in secret mass organizations grew nearly 50 percent, while the number of individuals reached by the revolution tripled. The NPA in Northern Negros also doubled the range of its area of operations and launched at least 19 guerrilla offensive and counter-offensive actions. It conducted these operations up to towns near the provincial capital and populated areas.”

What is happening in Negros shows us that the U.S.-Marcos regime is fighting a losing battle, because, as our founding chairperson Jose Maria Sison declared in his last statement before passing, “the Filipino people’s democratic revolution is invincible.” As long as the toiling masses’ aspirations for land, for sovereignty, and for a future crafted by our own hands continue to exist, so will the people’s revolution. The martyrdom of the Negros 19 has only fueled and fanned the flames of struggle across the country, and among the Filipino diaspora and our allies overseas. In their wake, thousands more will raise high the red flag of people’s war.

Comrades, the enemy is frightened because of the success of our people’s movements the world over, from the U.S., to Palestine, to Iran, to the Philippines. Each victory in one of our countries represents a victory for all. And with our weapon of proletarian internationalism wielded by the broad anti-imperialist united front, we know that no tactical setback can prevent the inevitability of peoples’ victories against the yoke of imperialism, fascism, and all reaction.

On the occasion of your 10th Congress and beyond, we look forward to continuing to learn and struggle alongside each other, to fight for more victories for the people, and to march side- by- side with one another in the pursuit for freedom, justice, a bright socialist tomorrow, and even brighter communist future.

Mabuhay ang Freedom Road Socialist Organization! Long live Freedom Road Socialist Organization!

Long live proletarian internationalism!

Long live the toiling masses struggling for liberation!

Communist Party, Sweden

To the upcoming congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organisation

We from Communist Party, Sweden, wish you all success with your political and organisational work regarding your congress. We are well aware of your enormous tasks you have working in the belly of the of the most aggressive and reactionary state we have seen since nazism. Sweden today is both an imperialist country as well as a tool under European Union as well under American Imperialism. Some days ago our party organised thousands of demostraters against Nato-summit in Helsingborg. At May Day we had meetings and rallies at 27 places in Sweden and we raised 20 thousand dollars to solarpanels at a hospital in western Cuba. All in collaboration with Cuba Embassy in Sweden.

Down with US imperialism! Down with Nato! Long live proletarian internationalism!

Povel Johansson Partychairman

Erik Anderson Internationally Secretary

United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)

Estimada compañera:

I write to you to extend a fraternal and revolutionary greeting on behalf of the workers of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — men and women alike — the land of Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez, where the working class continues to resist and produce despite the criminal blockade.

I take this opportunity to warmly congratulate you on the celebration of your 10th National Congress, an event that, without a doubt, reaffirms the vitality of Marxism-Leninism at the heart of the empire.

On behalf of our working class and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), I recognize the consistent leadership that the FRSO has exercised over the years. We know that you maintain a real and combative presence in the U.S. labor movement, in the liberation struggle of African American communities, and in internationalist solidarity beyond the borders of the United States.

We want to express our most sincere gratitude for the constant support you have always given to the Venezuelan people and to the Bolivarian revolution. And very especially, we thank you for your militant solidarity with our brother Nicolás Maduro Moros, Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and working-class leader who guides the emancipatory process of our people.

Comrade Nicolás Maduro Moros today remains a prisoner of war in a federal jail in New York City, since he was vilely kidnapped on January 3, 2026, in Venezuelan territory. That the FRSO has raised its voice for him fills us with pride and hope.

Finally, I emphasize a deep conviction of the Venezuelan working class: the people of Venezuela recognize themselves as friends of the U.S. people, whose gallantry has inspired us ever since May 1, 1886. We do not confuse the working people with the rapacious governments, from which you also suffer as victims. Our hand is extended to the workers, to the dispossessed, to African Americans, to Indigenous peoples, and to all those who, like the FRSO, fight for a world without exploiters.

Confident that your 10th National Congress will be a victorious trench, we reiterate our proletarian embrace and our willingness to continue building internationalist solidarity.

¡Venceremos!

Sincerely,

Francisco A. Torrealba Vice President of the Working Class United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)

Workers World Party

Workers World Party sends our warmest greetings and our deep solidarity to the Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s 10th Congress, which is taking place in the developing stage of a severe crisis in the class struggle.

This crisis manifests in the decline in U.S. imperialism’s ability to dominate the world through the dollar and the Pentagon. It is exacerbated by the racist, misogynist, anti-foreign and utterly corrupt MAGA administration’s attempts to reverse the decline by undisguised military aggression abroad and increased exploitation at home.

Those of us who agree that a Marxist-Leninist party that organizes of and for the working class and all oppressed peoples is necessary, wish the 10th Congress of FRSO success in building an organization that can be much stronger than the sum of its individuals in order to obstruct the war plans of the imperialist ruling class, as well as their designs to squeeze more profits out of working people in the U.S. and worldwide.

We salute the steady working class organizing that Freedom Road Socialist Organization has continued during this tumultuous period, while maintaining a firm anti imperialist and internationalist view.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization has distinguished itself in the past year, especially regarding two important areas of struggle in which Workers World Party has also participated.

One is the fight to stop ICE thugs from persecuting the large migrant working-class community. Your work all over the country and especially in Los Angeles, Chicago, in Florida and in Minneapolis (the epicenter of the struggle in January) has been vitally important.

Another has been the ongoing struggle against imperialist war. Our organizations have often been together at rallies and marches in an attempt to create a revolutionary pole for the millions of people who oppose U.S. wars. Whether against Palestine, Lebanon, or Iran in West Asia, against Venezuela or now Cuba in Latin America, whether against NATO in Europe, it has been important that organizations who agree that “the enemy of humanity is at home” should work together to succeed.

Unless anger and frustration in today’s worsening conditions is consciously focused on U.S. imperialism’s crimes, it always goes toward attacking the shortcomings of our own movements. That only leads to demoralization, infighting, and empty polemical debates.

Our joint collaboration on many issues can hopefully create a new approach to the struggle in the U.S. Rather than competing, contending political formations, far more can be gained by learning from each other and building a unity of action with other emerging forces.

US imperialism, in this stage of decay, is highly unstable, racked by unwinnable wars and prone to reckless and unpredictable repression. We know that having each other’s back is the best insurance. An injury to one is an injury to all is the oldest lesson in the class struggle.

Long live the solidarity of FRSO and WWP!

Down with U.S. imperialism!

Struggle for Socialism Party / Struggle – La Lucha

Dear Comrade Mick Kelly and Delegates of the 10th Congress,

On behalf of the Struggle for Socialism Party and our publication Struggle-La Lucha, we extend our warmest and fraternal greetings to each delegate, member, and leader of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization as you convene your 10th Congress.

We have followed with admiration and solidarity your organization’s principled and militant work in the recent period. Your role in the struggle against mass deportations stands as a vital defense of immigrant and working-class communities under attack. Likewise, your consistent and courageous mobilization for Palestine and against the U.S. war drive on Iran reflects the highest internationalist traditions of our movement, challenging imperialism at its core. Your active engagement in the trade union, African American liberation, and Chicano liberation movements further demonstrates your commitment to building a united, multinational, anti-capitalist front capable of winning real power for the oppressed.

That your 10th Congress arrives at a moment of extraordinary growth — which includes securing a national office — is a testament to your perseverance and rootedness in struggle. This material and organizational progress strengthens the foundation for advancing revolutionary work.

We send these greetings in the spirit of working class internationalism and genuine revolutionary solidarity. May your Congress strengthen your unity, and prepare your membership for the intensified class battles ahead.

With respect and revolutionary fervor,

Fraternally,

Sharon Black and John Parker,

Coordinators, Struggle for Socialism Party and Struggle-La Lucha

#RevolutionaryTheory #FRSO #International #10thCongress #Congress

The successful conclusion of the 10th Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) marked a genuine advance in our efforts to build a serious revolutionary communist organization in the United States. The Congress took place in the context of extraordinary growth, we have far more members in far more cities and towns. Over the past several years we have helped lead protests involving hundreds of thousands and have become a real force in the people’s movements. We are advancing towards the goal of building a new communist party that can contend for power.

As the call to the 10th Congress stated, “We have done great things. We have developed our work in the labor movement. We played a significant role in the George Floyd rebellion and are actively building the national movements. We have done much to push back against Trump’s reactionary attacks. We are proletarian internationalists, who stand with the oppressed from Palestine to the Philippines.”

Beneath a large banner reading, “Freedom Road Socialist Organization 10th Congress: We have nothing to lose but our chains!” a packed hall of 185 delegates and 101 alternate delegates came together to set goals and make plans for strengthening organization, and to elect leadership. This was our first congress where all in attendance were elected by their districts.

Delegates hailed from all regions of the country. Reflecting the rapid growth of FRSO over the last four years, this was the first congress for most attendees. While some of the participants were veterans of the communist movement with many decades of experience, the overwhelming majority were under 35 years old. Many attending were leaders and activists in the labor movement. Over 40 percent of those present were oppressed nationalities. About half of those present were women and LGBTQ people.

The 10th Congress of FRSO came at a critical juncture in the development of the people’s struggle and the accelerating decline of monopoly capitalism in the U.S.

The congress adopted political resolutions on the economy, the political situation, and the international situation that provide materialist analyses of the conditions we are facing, and that help us understand the terrain of struggle ahead. Participants both new and old navigated the democratic process to reach unity on our line.

The congress elected a new central committee to lead our organization. The central committee elected longtime communist Mick Kelly to serve as the organization’s political secretary.

Messages of greetings from communist and workers’ parties, national liberation movements, and anti-imperialist organizations were read to the delegates, including messages from the Workers Party of Belgium, Mouvement National Congolais – Lumumba (MNC/L), Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), Communist Construction (Germany), CARC Party (Italy), Communist League of Indonesia, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Communist Party, Sweden, and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Messages from revolutionary organizations in the U.S., including the Workers World Party and the Struggle for Socialism Party / Struggle – La Lucha, were read to the delegates.

A message greeting the congress from the Communist Party of the Philippines states, “The Communist Party of the Philippines extends a militant salute to our comrades in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization on the occasion of your 10th Congress. Your gathering represents a significant victory for the working class and all other exploited and oppressed peoples here within the belly of the imperialist beast. It comes at no better a critical time, as contradictions within the United States and around the world are intensifying at an unprecedented rate.”

See all FRSO 10th Congress documents

See all Greetings from Communist and Workers Parties to the 10th Congress of the FRSO

#RevolutionaryTheory #FRSO #Congress #Featured

Mayo 5 es el aniversario n.º 208 del nacimiento del fundador del socialismo científico moderno, Karl Marx. Los comunistas alrededor del mundo marcaran este día celebrando y conmemorando su legado, y a nosotros los comunistas en Estados Unidos nos haría bien recordar sus contribuciones monumentales y evaluar lo que Marx nos tiene que decir hoy.

Marx no fue el primer socialista. Él fue el primero en poner a la teoría socialista sobre una fundación científica y materialista, y en darle al socialismo una orientación revolucionaria firme. Como su gran alumno Lenin dijo,

“La doctrina de Marx es omnipotente porque es verdadera. Es completa y armónica, y brinda a los hombres una concepción integral del mundo, intransigente con toda superstición, con toda reacción y con toda defensa de la opresión burguesa. El marxismo es el heredero legítimo de lo mejor que la humanidad creó en el siglo XIX: la filosofía alemana, la economía política inglesa y el socialismo francés.”

Lo importante a entender aquí es que el marxismo no salió de la nada. Nació de la interacción de ideas que vino antes de él, impulsado por el crecimiento del capitalismo y el movimiento obrero revolucionario. En otras palabras, Marx tomó la materia prima de las teorías más avanzadas de economía política, filosofía y pensamiento socialista, y, en el horno de la feroz lucha de clases, forjó la teoría del socialismo científico.

Cuando decimos “socialismo científico,” ¿a qué exactamente nos referimos? ¿De qué forma Marx hizo al socialismo científico? Primero que todo, tenemos que entender que el pensamiento socialista, antes de Marx, era, en su núcleo, idealista y utópico. En pocas palabras, esto significa que fallaba en entender que la conciencia es impulsada y moldeada ante todo por la realidad material, y debe hacer su misión cambiar la realidad material en formas fundamentales. Los socialistas utópicos que precedieron a Marx eran incapaces de entender esto, así que crearon todo tipo de fantasías sobre sociedades utópicas sin manera real de llegar allá.

Marx, por otro lado, entendió que el cambio histórico y social es un proceso gobernado por leyes, y que solo al entender y aprovechar estas leyes podríamos remodelar la sociedad de una forma fundamental. Marx entendió que es la base material y económica de la sociedad, cómo la sociedad organiza su producción y distribución de bienes, lo que determina las ideas de esa sociedad, en vez de al contrario. Basado en procesos materiales, Marx vio que la historia se había movido a través de una serie de etapas, del comunalismo primitivo a las antiguas sociedades esclavistas, al feudalismo, y al capitalismo. Además, entendió que es la lucha de clases la que sirve de motor del cambio histórico. Vio que la lucha de clases es inevitable siempre y cuando existan las clases. La lucha de clases y la revolución inevitable son el resultado de cualquier sistema donde las relaciones de producción, las relaciones de clase de propiedad y poder, vengan a reprimir el desarrollo de las fuerzas productivas que mueven el progreso. Solo al liberar las fuerzas productivas de las trabas de las relaciones productivas reaccionarias puede progresar la sociedad a una etapa elevada. Esto es lo que pasó durante cada cambio histórico de un modo de producción a otro. De este modo él concluyó que es la gran misión histórica de la clase obrera el derrocar el capitalismo, tomarse el poder estatal a través de la revolución, y remodelar sistemáticamente la sociedad a través de su propio estado socialista. Al hacer esto, la clase obrera arrancaría y eliminaría todos los vestigios de las clases y la lucha de clases, dando lugar a la sociedad comunista. Esta es la idea básica de la concepción materialista marxista de la historia, o el materialismo histórico.

Subyacente a esta teoría de la historia está la filosofía de Marx del materialismo dialéctico, que entiende que la contradicción, donde fuerzas oponentes luchan una contra otra y cambian de lugar, es el catalizador de todo cambio. La teoría marxista del materialismo dialéctico fue desarrollada más a fondo en formas importantes por su compañero, Friedrich Engels, y luego por Lenin, Stalin y Mao.

Marx tomó su materialismo dialéctico e histórico y los aplicó al análisis de la economía política. De este modo, en su gran obra El capital, reveló las leyes del movimiento del sistema capitalista, cómo la explotación capitalista estaba basada en un tipo de robo de la clase obrera escondido en los mecanismos de la producción capitalista.

Él fue capaz de entender la ley del valor, que opera en el centro de la producción de mercancías – que el valor de una mercancía está determinado por el tiempo de trabajo socialmente necesario requerido para su producción. Explicó cómo la competencia impulsa a los capitalistas a maximizar sus ganancias al incrementar la productividad para reducir el costo de producción bajo el promedio social. Y él vio a través de la cortina de humo de los economistas capitalistas para revelar a todos que era mediante la artimaña de la plusvalía, el valor producido por la clase obrera más allá de de lo que son pagados, robado por los capitalistas, que los capitalistas pueden hacer eso. Esto es la base de la ganancia capitalista, llevando al enriquecimiento de la clase capitalista, la concentración de la riqueza en menos y menos manos, y el empobrecimiento y pauperización de las masas obreras. De esto, Marx entendió que esto inevitablemente llevaría a crisis cíclicas de sobreproducción, tirando a trabajadores al ejército de reserva de los desempleados, gastando y arruinando las fuerzas productivas. Esta es la crisis donde las relaciones productivas actúan como trabas para el desarrollo de las fuerzas productivas, un ciclo aplastante de ruina cuya única resolución es la revolución.

El capital fue el mayor obsequio de Marx a la clase obrera. Dejó claro el problema, el capitalismo en sí, y la solución, la revolución socialista. Diagnosticó la enfermedad y reveló la cura. Pero Marx no era un mero teórico. Él entendía que era solo al organizarse para la revolución como clase que los obreros podían liberarse a sí mismos de la explotación y construir una nueva sociedad. No debemos olvidar o minimizar el hecho de que Marx era un organizador revolucionario. Él escribió folletos y editó periódicos con el fin de educar y agitar la clase obrera. Y él fundó y dirigió organizaciones de clase obrera revolucionarias.

En 1846 fundó el Comité Comunista de Correspondencia. El CCC se juntó con la Liga de los justos y formó la Liga Comunista en 1847, que Marx lideró. En efecto, el apasionado programa de la Liga Comunista, El manifiesto comunista, del que Marx fue coautor con Engels, se convertiría en una de sus más conocidas y ampliamente leídas obras. En 1850 Marx dio su famosa Circular del Comité Central a la Liga Comunista donde explicó el lado práctico de la teoría postulada en El manifiesto. Ahí Marx explica que los trabajadores deben actuar independientemente con sus propios intereses de clase con el fin de establecer un gobierno de los obreros a través de la revolución. Después de ser exiliado a Londres como resultado de su actividad revolucionaria, él ayudaría a fundar y liderar la Asociación Internacional de Trabajadores, conocida en la historia como la Primera Internacional.

Las contribuciones de Marx hoy en día

Hoy, el capitalismo se ha desarrollado a su fase superior y final, lo que Lenin llamaba imperialismo. Es un sistema moribundo, un sistema en declive. Es un sistema más allá de la ayuda, más allá de la reforma. Cualquier rol progresivo que alguna vez tuvo en la historia se acabó hace tiempo. Solo nos reprime de construir un mundo mejor.

Y en sus últimos estertores es especialmente brutal y violento, intentando prolongar su vida parasitariamente de la sangre de los pueblos obreros y oprimidos de todo lugar. La presidencia reaccionaria de Trump ha agudizado las contradicciones del capitalismo, y, luchando para reprimir la marea de la historia que inevitablemente lo borrará, solo apura su desaparición.

Todo lo que Marx nos ha explicado sobre el capitalismo continúa siendo válido, desde El capital hasta la Circular a la Liga Comunista, desde su explicación de sus leyes del movimiento hasta los medios de su derrocamiento. En efecto, se requiere organización revolucionaria de parte de los obreros conscientes de clase luchando por el socialismo, junto a las nacionalidades oprimidas que buscan la liberación del imperialismo.

Como Mao Zedong dijo una vez,

“A nosotros nos incumbe organizar al pueblo. En cuanto a los reaccionarios chinos, nos incumbe a nosotros organizar al pueblo para derribarlos. Lo mismo ocurre con todo lo reaccionario: si tú no lo golpeas, no se cae. Esto es igual que barrer el suelo; por regla general, donde no llega la escoba, el polvo no desaparece solo.”

En otras palabras, debemos continuar la obra más fundamental de Marx y seguir sus pasos. Debemos comprender las leyes de la historia, aprovechar las contradicciones y organizarse para la revolución.

J. Sykes es el autor del libro “The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism”. El libro se puede comprar visitando frso.org/books

#RevolutionaryTheory #Marx

May 5 is the 208th anniversary of the birth of the founder of modern scientific socialism, Karl Marx. Communists around the world will mark this day by celebrating and commemorating his legacy, and we communists in the United States would do well to look back upon his monumental contributions and take stock of what Marx has to tell us today. 

Marx wasn’t the first socialist. He was the first to set socialist theory on a scientific and materialist foundation, and to give socialism an uncompromising revolutionary orientation. As his great pupil Lenin said, 

“The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defense of bourgeois oppression. It is the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the nineteenth century, as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.”

The important thing to understand here is that Marxism didn’t come out of nowhere. It was born out of the interplay of ideas that came before it, driven by the growth of capitalism and the revolutionary working-class movement. In other words, Marx took the raw materials of the most advanced theories in political economy, philosophy and socialist thought, and, in the crucible of fierce class struggle, forged the theory of scientific socialism. 

When we say “scientific socialism,” just what do we mean? In what way did Marx make socialism scientific? First of all, we have to understand that socialist thought, prior to Marx, was, at its core, idealistic and utopian. Simply put, this means it failed to understand that consciousness is driven and shaped first and foremost by material reality, and must make its aim changing material reality in fundamental ways. The Utopian Socialists that preceded Marx were unable to grasp this, so they created all kinds of fantasies about utopian societies with no real way to get there. 

Marx, on the other hand, understood that historical and social change is a law-governed process, and that only by understanding and leveraging these laws could we reshape society in a fundamental way. Marx understood that it is the material and economic base of society, how that society organizes the production and distribution of goods, that determines the ideas of that society, instead of the other way around. Based on material processes, Marx saw that history had moved through a series of stages, from primitive communalism to the ancient slave societies, to feudalism, and to capitalism. Further, he understood that it is class struggle that serves as the motor of historical change. He saw that class struggle is inevitable so long as classes exist. Class struggle and inevitable revolution are the result of any system where the relations of production, the class relations of ownership and power, come to hold back the development of the productive forces that drive progress. Only by freeing the productive forces from the fetters of reactionary productive relations could society progress to a higher stage. This is what had happened during every historic shift from one mode of production to the next. He thus concluded that it is the great historical mission of the working class to overthrow capitalism, seize state power through revolution, and systematically reshape society though its own socialist state. By doing this, the working class would uproot and eliminate all remnants of classes and class struggle, bringing about the communist society. This is the basic idea of Marxist materialist conception of history, or historical materialism. 

Underlying this theory of history is Marx’s philosophy of dialectical materialism, which understands that contradiction, where opposing forces struggle against one another and exchange places, is the catalyst of all change. Marx’s theory of dialectical materialism was further developed in important ways by his partner, Friedrich Engels, and later by Lenin, Stalin and Mao.

Marx took his dialectical and historical materialism and applied them to the analysis of political economy. Thus, in his great work Capital, he laid bare the laws of motion of the capitalist system, how capitalist exploitation was based on a kind of robbery of the working class hidden within the mechanisms of capitalist production. 

He was able to understand the law of value, which operates at the heart of commodity production – that the value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labor time required for its production. He explained how competition drives the capitalists to maximize profit by increasing productivity to reduce the cost of production below the social average. And he saw through the smoke and mirrors of the capitalist economists to reveal to everyone that it was through the dirty trick of surplus value, the value produced by the working class beyond and above what they are paid, pocketed by the capitalists, that the capitalists are able to do that. This is the basis of capitalist profit, leading to the enrichment of the capitalist class, the concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands, and the impoverishment and immiseration of the working masses. From this, Marx understood that this would inevitably lead to cyclical crises of overproduction, throwing workers out into the reserve army of the unemployed, and wasting and ruining the productive forces. This is the crisis where the productive relations act as fetters to the development of the productive forces, a crushing cycle of ruin whose only resolution is revolution. 

Capital was Marx’s great gift to the working class. It laid bare the problem, capitalism itself, and the solution, socialist revolution. It diagnosed the disease and revealed the cure. But Marx was no mere theorist. He understood that it was only by organizing for revolution as a class that the workers could free themselves from exploitation and build a new society. We must not forget or downplay the fact that Marx was a revolutionary organizer. He wrote pamphlets and edited newspapers in order to educate and agitate the working class. And he founded and led revolutionary working class organizations. 

In 1846 he founded the Communist Correspondence Committee. The CCC merged with the League of the Just and formed the Communist League in 1847, which Marx led. Indeed, the fiery program of the Communist League, The Communist Manifesto, which Marx co-authored with Engels, would become one of his best known and widely read works. In 1850 Marx gave his famous Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League where he explains the practical side of the theory put forward in the Manifesto. There Marx explains that the workers must act independently in their own class interests in order to establish a workers’ government through revolution. After being exiled to London as a result of his revolutionary activity, he would help to found and lead the International Workingmen’s Association, known to history and the First International.

Marx’s contributions today

Today, capitalism has developed to its highest and final stage, what Lenin called imperialism. It is a dying system, a system in decay. It is a system beyond help, beyond reform. Whatever progressive role it once played in history is long gone. It only holds us back from building a better world. 

And in its death throes it is especially brutal and violent, trying to prolong its life parasitically from the blood of working and oppressed people everywhere. Trump’s reactionary presidency has sharpened the contradictions of capitalism, and, scrambling to hold back the tide of history which will inevitably sweep it away, only hastens its demise. 

Everything Marx has explained to us about capitalism holds true, from Capital to the Address to the Communist League, from his explanation of its laws of motion to the means of its overthrow. Indeed, it takes revolutionary organization on the part of the class-conscious workers fighting for socialism, together with oppressed nationalities who seek liberation from imperialism. As Mao Zedeong once said, 

“It is up to us to organize the people. As for the reactionaries in China, it is up to us to organize the people to overthrow them. Everything reactionary is the same; if you don't hit it, it won't fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself.”

In other words, we must continue Marx’s most fundamental work and follow in his footsteps. We must grasp the laws of history, leverage contradictions and organize for revolution. 

J. Sykes is the author of the book “The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism”. The book can be purchased by visiting frso.org/books

#RevolutionaryTheory #Marx

No hay sistema mejor aplastando sueños que el capitalismo de monopolio.

Cuando los padres de Claudia Jones emigraron a Estados Unidos desde Trinidad y Tobago en 1922, “esperaban encontrar sus fortunas en América donde el ‘oro podía encontrarse en las calles.’” (Historia Autobiográfica, Claudia Jones)

En cambio, encontraron pobreza, opresión Jim Crow, y desesperación.

Estos males desilusionaron a Claudia Jones y le mostraron la hipocresía del supuesto Sueño Americano. Ella se convertiría en una organizadora marxista-leninista, teórica y revolucionaria.

Después de unirse al Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos de América (CPUSA), Jones nunca paró de luchar contra el imperialismo estadounidense. En su artículo “Acabar con la negligencia hacia los problemas de las mujeres negras” (1949), Jones analiza el estatus especial de las mujeres negras bajo el imperialismo estadounidense y le enseña a organizadores exactamente cómo luchar en contra.

La proletarización de las mujeres negras en los Estados Unidos

“Las mujeres negras – como obreras, como negras, y como mujeres – son el estrato más oprimido de toda la población. En 1940, dos de cada cinco mujeres negras, a diferencia de dos de cada ocho mujeres blancas, trabajaban para ganarse la vida. Por virtud de su estado mayoritario entre el pueblo negro, las mujeres negras no solo constituyen el mayor porcentaje de mujeres cabezas de familias pero además son las principales proveedoras de la familia negra.” (de “Acabar con la negligencia hacia los problemas de las mujeres negras”)

La superexplotación del capitalismo sobre los afroamericanos forzó a las mujeres negras a proletarizar y unirse a la clase obrera. Las mujeres negras obreras eran comúnmente forzadas a hacer trabajo doméstico, completando tareas del hogar para familias blancas y después regresando a sus hogares para completar más tareas para sus propias familias. La sindicalización y protecciones legales no se extendían para la mayoría de trabajadores domésticos.

No fue hasta la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando los EEUU necesitaban reclutar nuevos trabajadores para las industrias mientras cientos de miles de antiguos trabajadores fueron a luchar en la guerra, que las mujeres negras finalmente fueron permitidas hacer algunos trabajos cualificados y explorar otros campos debido a la necesidad de la industria de contratar nuevos trabajadores.

Estos obstáculos, incluyendo la represión política y legal, el linchamiento, la violación, y muchas otras capas de explotación, necesitan estar en la base de cualquier análisis serio de las condiciones de las mujeres negras en los EEUU.

No hay liberación de las mujeres sin liberación negra

A pesar de este hecho, las organizaciones políticas que luchan por las mujeres siguen ignorando la importancia de la clase y la necesidad de la liberación nacional. Jones critica la actitud de las sufragistas y las mujeres blancas pequeñoburguesas por ignorar la lucha afroamericana en su lucha por la liberación de las mujeres en el siglo 20.

Otra vez de “Acabar con la negligencia”, “fue la limitación histórica de las líderes por el sufragio femenino, principalmente tomadas como eran de la burguesía y la pequeña burguesía, que fallaron en vincular sus propias luchas con las luchas por los plenos derechos democráticos del pueblo negro después de la emancipación.”

Los progresistas en la lucha por la liberación de las mujeres ignoraron la realidad de que no hay liberación de las mujeres sin liberación nacional.

Estas mismas actitudes aparecen hoy en día, aunque con argumentos diferentes y con terminologías diferentes. La ideología posmodernista, popular entre revolucionarios pequeñoburgueses y en particular académicos, intenta convencer a los organizadores dentro del movimiento a ver las luchas por la liberación de las mujeres, la liberación de la clase obrera, y la liberación negra en competencia una con otras.

En el artículo de J. Sykes “Sobre el origen y desarrollo del posmodernismo,” él explica cómo la ideología posmoderna no puede reconocer el asunto principal alrededor de las luchas por la liberación y limita el pensamiento de las personas a los análisis subjetivos y unilaterales.

Sykes nota que, “La base de la idea posmodernista [es] que la verdad no es objetiva, pero en cambio, que la verdad es construida socialmente… [los posmodernistas creen] que cualquier “discurso” dado debería “quedarse en su carril” ya que no es capaz de entender de dónde vienen otros. En otras palabras, no tenemos experiencias universales y compartidas. Esta mentalidad lleva a subjetivismo y relativismo, y una inhabilidad de unir estratégicamente diferentes luchas. Además, esto hace imposible nombrar cualquier lucha particular como la contradicción principal que impulsa el proceso, lo que podríamos aprovechar para maximizar nuestra eficacia a través de las luchas.”

El posmodernismo divide mientras que el marxismo-leninismo une. En vez de mostrar las conexiones históricas para probar que hay una base de unidad entre todas las mujeres obreras y enfocarse en el hecho de que la unidad de las luchas por liberación negra con las luchas obreras ha creado progreso y victorias reales por el movimiento popular en los Estados Unidos, el posmodernismo pone a las masas contra sí mismas.

El discurso está centrado alrededor de criticar a la gente blanca como una totalidad homogénea con los mismos intereses políticos y sociales o una consciencia compartida asumida. Este argumento abstracto y ecléctico se rehúsa a reconocer que la clase obrera multinacional en conjunto puede ser convencida de apoyar las luchas de los movimientos de liberación nacional, lo que significa que hay un interés material para todas las mujeres obreras cuando se trata de luchar contra la opresión nacional.

Solo la lucha por una sociedad socialista, donde la clase obrera tiene el poder y el interés propio de abolir la opresión en contra de todos los oprimidos y explotados, puede borrar las contradicciones en la raíz de los problemas que enfrentan las mujeres negras en EEUU.

Las mujeres negras avanzan la nación afroamericana

En los 1940, las mujeres obreras negras desempeñaban un gran rol no solo en organizaciones de masa, sino también en luchas obreras. Como obreras y esposas de obreras, la militancia y lucha de las mujeres negras ayudó a desarrollar la lucha contra las malas condiciones laborales, maltrato, y opresión nacional en la planta.

Al mismo tiempo, era inusual para las mujeres negras estar en posiciones de liderazgo dentro de sindicatos y organizaciones de masas. Claudia Jones usó sus escritos para combatir manifestaciones de chovinismo blanco y luchar contra la tendencia vista en el movimiento obrero de rechazar las capacidades de liderazgo de las mujeres obreras negras. Ella enfatizó que las mujeres negras avanzadas podían mover elementos intermedios de las masas afroamericanas para involucrarse en la lucha contra el imperialismo.

Jones escribió, “Las fuertes capacidades, militancia, y talento organizacional de las mujeres negras, pueden… ser una palanca poderosa para traer al frente obreros negros-hombres y mujeres-como las fuerzas al mando del movimiento por la liberación del pueblo negro… y para que el partido eche raíces entre las secciones más explotadas y oprimidas de la clase obrera y sus aliados.”

Para que un partido comunista evite posiciones oportunistas e interesadas y se mantenga dedicado a su rol como el partido de la clase obrera, es necesario reclutar líderes y aliados que tengan un antagonismo profundo contra el sistema capitalista que desarrolle la conciencia, determinación e impulso para terminarlo. Las mujeres negras a menudo enfrentan la mayor humillación, irrespeto y discriminación de la clase capitalista de monopolio. Este maltrato y opresión ayuda a crear revolucionarias motivadas y disciplinadas.

Más grande que un sueño

El capitalismo aplastó los sueños de una joven Claudia Jones.

Eso no detuvo a Jones de organizarse y luchar contra el sistema podrido que ella correctamente comprendió ser la mayor amenaza para la liberación nacional doméstica e internacionalmente. Incluso después de ser deportada de los EEUU por su militancia, se mantuvo un miembro del Partido Comunista de Gran Bretaña hasta su muerte en 1964.

Las conclusiones a las que llega Jones en su artículo aún aplican a la lucha por la clase obrera multinacional y el movimiento de liberación nacional hoy. Los problemas únicos de las mujeres obreras negras no pueden ser entendidos como conceptos aislados y abstractos. Los revolucionarios deben continuar profundizando su entendimiento del estatus especial de la opresión de las mujeres negras y todas las mujeres oprimidas.

Sin importar las consecuencias, Claudia Jones nunca paró de luchar por la libertad. Sus escritos y su militancia continúan abriendo el camino hacia el socialismo, el único sistema que puede abolir la explotación nacional y la opresión por siempre.

Es la responsabilidad de los comunistas en EEUU borrar las ilusiones de todas las personas oprimidas en el vientre de la bestia y prepararlos para la lucha. La lucha por la liberación negra y la liberación de las mujeres es algo mucho más grande que un sueño: es una realidad, algo que puede hacerse y será hecho, especialmente si escuchamos las orientaciones de revolucionarios que vinieron antes de nosotros.

Delilah Pierre es un miembro del Equipo de Trabajo del Movimiento LGBTQ y de Mujeres de la Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad.

#RevolutionaryTheory #ClaudiaJones #LGBTQ

To mark the April 22, 1870, birthday of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, Fight Back News Service is circulating the following article he wrote in 1906, “Lessons of the Moscow Uprising.”

Lessons of the Moscow Uprising

The publication of the book Moscow in December 1905 (Moscow, 1906) could not have been more timely. It is an urgent task of the workers’ party to assimilate the lessons of the December uprising. Unfortunately, this book is like a barrel of honey spoilt by a spoonful of tar: most interesting material—despite its incompleteness—and incredibly slovenly, incredibly trite conclusions. We shall deal with these conclusions on another occasion; at present we shall turn our attention to the burning political question of the day, to the lessons of the Moscow uprising.

The principal forms of the December movement in Moscow were the peaceful strike and demonstrations, and these were the only forms of struggle in which the vast majority of the workers took an active part. Yet, the December action in Moscow vividly demonstrated that the general strike, as an independent and predominant form of struggle, is out of date, that the movement is breaking out of these narrow bounds with elemental and irresistible force and giving rise to the highest form of struggle—an uprising.

In calling the strike, all the revolutionary parties, all the Moscow unions recognised and even intuitively felt that it must inevitably grow into an uprising. On December 6 the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies resolved to “strive to transform the strike into an armed uprising”. As a matter of fact, however, none of the organisations were prepared for this. Even the Joint Council of Volunteer Fighting Squads spoke (on December 9!) of an uprising as of something remote, and it is quite evident that it had no hand in or control of the street fighting that took place. The organisations failed to keep pace with the growth and range of the movement.

The strike was growing into an uprising, primarily as a result of the pressure of the objective conditions created after October. A general strike could no longer take the government unawares: it had already organised the forces of counter-revolution, and they were ready for military action. The whole course of the Russian revolution after October, and the sequence of events in Moscow in the December days, strikingly confirmed one of Marx’s profound propositions: revolution progresses by giving rise to a strong and united counter-revolution, i.e., it compels the enemy to resort to more and more extreme measures of defence and in this way devises ever more powerful means of attack.

December 7 and 8: a peaceful strike, peaceful mass demonstrations. Evening of the 8th: the siege of the Aquarium. The morning of the 9th: the crowd in Strastnaya Square is attacked by the dragoons. Evening: the Fiedler building is raided. Temper rises. The unorganized street crowds, quite spontaneously and hesitatingly, set up the first barricades.

The 10th: artillery fire is opened on the barricades and the crowds in the streets. Barricades are set up more deliberately, and no longer in isolated cases, but on a really mass scale. The whole population is in the streets; all the main centers of the city are covered by a network of barricades. For several days the volunteer fighting units wage a stubborn guerrilla battle against the troops, which exhausts the troops and compels Dubasov to beg for reinforcements. Only on December 15 did the superiority of the government forces become complete, and on December 17 the Semyonovsky Regiment crushed Presnya District, the last stronghold of the uprising.

From a strike and demonstrations to isolated barricades. From isolated barricades to the mass erection of barricades and street fighting against the troops. Over the heads of the organizations, the mass proletarian struggle developed from a strike to an uprising. This is the greatest historic gain the Russian revolution achieved in December 1905; and like all preceding gains it was purchased at the price of enormous sacrifices. The movement was raised from a general political strike to a higher stage. It compelled the reaction to go to the limit in its resistance, and so brought vastly nearer the moment when the revolution will also go to the limit in applying the means of attack. The reaction cannot go further than the shelling of barricades, buildings and crowds. But the revolution can go very much further than the Moscow volunteer fighting units, it can go very, very much further in breadth and depth. And the revolution has advanced far since December. The base of the revolutionary crisis has become immeasurably broader—the blade must now be sharpened to a keener edge.

The proletariat sensed sooner than its leaders the change in the objective conditions of the struggle and the need for a transition from the strike to an uprising. As is always the case, practice marched ahead of theory. A peaceful strike and demonstrations immediately ceased to satisfy the workers; they asked: What is to be done next? And they demanded more resolute action. The instructions to set up barricades reached the districts exceedingly late, when barricades were already being erected in the center of the city. The workers set to work in large numbers, but even this did not satisfy them; they wanted to know: what is to be done next?— they demanded active measures. In December, we, the leaders of the Social-Democratic proletariat, were like a commander-in-chief who has deployed his troops in such an absurd way that most of them took no active part in the battle. The masses of the workers demanded, but failed to receive, instructions for resolute mass action.

Thus, nothing could be more short-sighted than Plekhanov’s view, seized upon by all the opportunists, that the strike was untimely and should not have been started, and that “they should not have taken to arms”. On the contrary, we should have taken to arms more resolutely, energetically and aggressively; we should have explained to the masses that it was impossible to confine things to a peaceful strike and that a fearless and relentless armed fight was necessary. And now we must at last openly and publicly admit that political strikes are inadequate; we must carry on the widest agitation among the masses in favor of an armed uprising and make no attempt to obscure this question by talk about “preliminary stages”, or to befog it in any way. We would be deceiving both ourselves and the people if we concealed from the masses the necessity of a desperate, bloody war of extermination, as the immediate task of the coming revolutionary action.

Such is the first lesson of the December events. Another lesson concerns the character of the uprising, the methods by which it is conducted, and the conditions which lead to the troops coming over to the side of the people. An extremely biased view on this latter point prevails in the Right wing of our Party. It is alleged that there is no possibility of fighting modern troops; the troops must become revolutionary. Of course, unless the revolution assumes a mass character and affects the troops, there can be no question of serious struggle. That we must work among the troops goes without saying. But we must not imagine that they will come over to our side at one stroke, as a result of persuasion or their own convictions. The Moscow uprising clearly demonstrated how stereotyped and lifeless this view is. As a matter of fact, the wavering of the troops, which is inevitable in every truly popular movement, leads to a real fight for the troops whenever the revolutionary struggle be comes acute. The Moscow uprising was precisely an example of the desperate, frantic struggle for the troops that takes place between the reaction and the revolution. Dubasov himself declared that of the fifteen thousand men of the Moscow garrison, only five thousand were reliable. The government restrained the waverers by the most diverse and desperate measures: they appealed to them, flattered them, bribed them, presented them with watches, money, etc.; they doped them with vodka, they lied to them, threatened them, confined them to barracks and disarmed them, and those who were suspected of being least reliable were removed by treachery and violence. And we must have the courage to confess, openly and unreservedly, that in this respect we lagged behind the government. We failed to utilize the forces at our disposal for such an active, bold, resourceful and aggressive fight for the wavering troops as that which the government waged and won. We have carried on work in the army and we will redouble our efforts in the future ideologically to “win over” the troops. But we shall prove to be miserable pedants if we forget that at a time of uprising there must also be a physical struggle for the troops.

In the December days, the Moscow proletariat taught us magnificent lessons in ideologically “winning over” the troops, as, for example, on December 8 in Strastnaya Square, when the crowd surrounded the Cossacks, mingled and fraternized with them, and persuaded them to turn back. Or on December 10, in Presnya District, when two working girls, carrying a red flag in a crowd of 10,000 people, rushed out to meet the Cossacks crying: “Kill us! We will not surrender the flag alive!” And the Cossacks were disconcerted and galloped away, amidst the shouts from the crowd: “Hurrah for the Cossacks!” These examples of courage and heroism should be impressed forever on the mind of the proletariat.

But here are examples of how we lagged behind Dubasov. On December 9, soldiers were marching down Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street singing the Marseillaise, on their way to join the insurgents. The workers sent delegates to meet them. Malakhov himself galloped at breakneck speed towards them. The workers were too late, Malakhov reached them first. He delivered a passionate speech, caused the soldiers to waver, surrounded them with dragoons, marched them off to barracks and locked them in. Malakhov reached the soldiers in time and we did not, although within two days 150,000 people had risen at our call, and these could and should have organized the patrolling of the streets. Malakhov surrounded the soldiers with dragoons, whereas we failed to surround the Malakhovs with bomb-throwers. We could and should have done this; and long ago the Social-Democratic press (the old Iskra) pointed out that ruthless extermination of civil and military chiefs was our duty during an uprising. What took place in Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street was apparently repeated in its main features in front of the Nesvizhskiye Barracks and the Krutitskiye Barracks, and also when the workers attempted to “withdraw” the Ekaterinoslav Regiment, and when delegates were sent to the sappers in Alexandrov, and when the Rostov artillery on its way to Moscow was turned back, and when the sappers were disarmed in Kolomna, and so on. During the uprising we proved unequal to our task in the fight for the wavering troops.

The December events confirmed another of Marx’s profound propositions, which the opportunists have forgotten, namely, that insurrection is an art and that the principal rule of this art is the waging of a desperately bold and irrevocably determined offensive. We have not sufficiently assimilated this truth. We ourselves have not sufficiently learned, nor have we taught the masses, this art, this rule to attack at all costs. We must make up for this omission with all our energy. It is not enough to take sides on the question of political slogans; it is also necessary to take sides on the question of an armed uprising. Those who are opposed to it, those who do not prepare for it, must be ruthlessly dismissed from the ranks of the supporters of the revolution, sent packing to its enemies, to the traitors or cowards; for the day is approaching when the force of events and the conditions of the struggle will compel us to distinguish between enemies and friends according to this principle. It is not passivity that we should preach, not mere “waiting” until the troops “come over”. No! We must proclaim from the house tops the need for a bold offensive and armed attack, the necessity at such times of exterminating the persons in command of the enemy, and of a most energetic fight for the wavering troops.

The third great lesson taught by Moscow concerns the tactics and organization of the forces for an uprising. Military tactics depend on the level of military technique. This plain truth Engels demonstrated and brought home to all Marxists. Military technique today is not what it was in the middle of the nineteenth century. It would be folly to contend against artillery in crowds and defend barricades with revolvers. Kautsky was right when he wrote that it is high time now, after Moscow, to review Engels’s conclusions, and that Moscow had inaugurated “new barricade tactics”. These tactics are the tactics of guerrilla warfare. The organization required for such tactics is that of mobile and exceedingly small units, units of ten, three or even two persons. We often meet Social-Democrats now who scoff whenever units of five or three are mentioned. But scoffing is only a cheap way of ignoring the new question of tactics and organization raised by street fighting under the conditions imposed by modern military technique. Study carefully the story of the Moscow uprising, gentlemen, and you will understand what connection exists between “units of five” and the question of “new barricade tactics”.

Moscow advanced these tactics, but failed to develop them far enough, to apply them to any considerable extent, to a really mass extent. There were too few volunteer fighting squads, the slogan of bold attack was not issued to the masses of the workers and they did not apply it; the guerrilla detachments were too uniform in character, their arms and methods were inadequate, their ability to lead the crowd was almost undeveloped. We must make up for all this and we shall do so by learning from the experience of Moscow, by spreading this experience among the masses and by stimulating their creative efforts to develop it still further. And the guerrilla warfare and mass terror that have been taking place throughout Russia practically without a break since December, will undoubtedly help the masses to learn the correct tactics of an uprising. Social-Democracy must recognize this mass terror and incorporate it into its tactics, organizing and controlling it of course, subordinating it to the interests and conditions of the working-class movement and the general revolutionary struggle, while eliminating and ruthlessly lopping off the “hooligan” perversion of this guerrilla warfare which was so splendidly and ruthlessly dealt with by our Moscow comrades during the uprising and by the Letts during the days of the famous Lettish republics.

There have been new advances in military technique in the very recent period. The Japanese War produced the hand grenade. The small-arms factories have placed automatic rifles on the market. Both these weapons are already being successfully used in the Russian revolution, but to a degree that is far from adequate. We can and must take advantage of improvements in technique, teach the workers’ detachments to make bombs in large quantities, help them and our fighting squads to obtain supplies of explosives, fuses and automatic rifles. If the mass of the workers takes part in uprisings in the towns, if mass attacks are launched on the enemy, if a determined and skillful fight is waged for the troops, who after the Duma, after Sveaborg and Kronstadt are wavering more than ever—and if we ensure participation of the rural areas in the general struggle—victory will be ours in the next all-Russian armed uprising.

Let us, then, develop our work more extensively and set our tasks more boldly, while mastering the lessons of the great days of the Russian revolution. The basis of our work is a correct estimate of class interests and of the requirements of the nation’s development at the present juncture. We are rallying, and shall continue to rally, an increasing section of the proletariat, the peasantry and the army under the slogan of overthrowing the tsarist regime and convening a constituent assembly by a revolutionary government. As hitherto, the basis and chief content of our work is to develop the political understanding of the masses. But let us not forget that, in addition to this general, constant and fundamental task, times like the present in Russia impose other, particular and special tasks. Let us not become pedants and philistines, let us not evade these special tasks of the moment, these special tasks of the given forms of struggle, by meaningless references to our permanent duties, which remain unchanged at all times and in all circumstances.

Let us remember that a great mass struggle is approaching. It will be an armed uprising. It must, as far as possible, be simultaneous. The masses must know that they are entering upon an armed, bloody and desperate struggle. Contempt for death must become widespread among them and will ensure victory. The onslaught on the enemy must be pressed with the greatest vigor; attack, not defense, must be the slogan of the masses; the ruthless extermination of the enemy will be their task; the organization of the struggle will become mobile and flexible; the wavering elements among the troops will be drawn into active participation. And in this momentous struggle, the party of the class-conscious proletariat must discharge its duty to the full.

#RevolutionaryTheory #Lenin

The great labor leader and former General Secretary and Chairman of the CPUSA, William Z. Foster, wrote hundreds of articles and pamphlets, giving a Marxist-Leninist analysis to the events and struggles of the day. He also wrote a number of longer books, especially in his later years. 

Foster wrote three major books summing up his experience as a revolutionary organizer in the trade union movement, From Bryan to Stalin (1937), Pages From a Worker’s Life (1939), and American Trade Unionism (1947). These are essential works on the labor movement that every revolutionary should study.

Foster also wrote five major histories, where he looked at particular aspects of history from a distinctly Marxist-Leninist, historical materialist perspective. These important works are Outline Political History of the Americas (1951), History of the Communist Party of the United States (1952), The Negro People in American History (1954), History of the Three Internationals (1955), and Outline History of the World Trade Union Movement (1956). 

All of these books are tremendously valuable works of Marxist-Leninist analysis, but here we’re going to focus on his book on the history of the Black liberation struggle in the U.S., The Negro People in American History.

Foster’s analysis

Foster sets out the purpose of his book clearly. He writes

“The general purpose of the present book, written from the standpoint of Marxism-Leninism, is to outline the growth of the American Negro people in relation to the historical development of the American nation. Concretely, the book also aims to stimulate further the present struggle of the Negro people for the fullest freedom along with their white allies, to analyze the factors making for the historical growth into ‘a nation within a nation,’ and to indicate the main lines of the young nation’s perspective of further social development.”

From this standpoint, Foster looks at the history African Americans going back to Africa and its colonization, through the international slave trade, slavery in the American colonies, the role of African Americans in the American Revolution of 1776, the rise of the Abolition movement, Republicanism, and the Civil War, Reconstruction and the counter-revolution against it, up through the Jim Crow period. 

The scope of The Negro People in American History is enormous, so for our purposes we’ll only zero in on a few points of particular interest so that we can get a look at how Foster puts Marxism-Leninism to work in analyzing the contradictions in motion in the history of the Black liberation struggle.

Let’s look at how Foster addresses the African American National Question, the central point of the “nation within a nation,” as he put it. This central question runs throughout the book, especially the chapters on Reconstruction, and the chapters on “The Communist Party and Negro Question” and “The Negro People As an Oppressed Nation.” 

Foster, first of all, recognizes the revolutionary character of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Foster says “The Civil War was a revolution, the second in United States history. It was a bourgeois-democratic revolution… because it brought about ‘a transference of power from one class to another.’” 

Indeed, the Civil War deposed the Southern Planter class that had until then “dominated the Federal Government” and put “the Northern industrialists firmly in the political saddle.” Foster notes that “The general effect of the war was to clear away barriers in the path of capitalism and to stimulate that system into tremendous expansion.” The main barrier in question was the outmoded and archaic system of chattel slavery in the South, which acted as a fetter, holding back industrial capitalist development, then centered in the North. 

Foster also astutely points out that the revolutionary demands of the African American people aimed “straight at the heart of the Confederacy.” These were the demands for “(a) the emancipation of the the slaves; (b) the arming of Negro slaves and freedmen; © the enfranchisement of the Negro people; (d) the abolition of Jim Crow and social inequality; and (e) the redistribution of land in the South.” Foster goes on to explain,

“The degree of revolutionary content in the Federal Government’s policy was always measured by the extent to which it adopted and was enforcing the national demands of the Negro people. The sequel showed that the Government never really made the Negro people’s demands its own. It always considered them something alien, to be picked up or dropped as political or military expediency dictated…” 

Foster explains that “The revolution, despite its final betrayal [toppling Reconstruction in 1877], brought basic advancement to the Negro people, achieving some of their major demands. Most important of all, it freed them from the terrible, centuries-old bondage of chattel slavery. It also won for them the legal right to vote, the right to education and to bear arms in the national defense.” 

But the betrayal of Reconstruction led to counter-revolution, disenfranchisement, lynch-terror and all of the other horrors of the Jim Crow system, including robbing African Americans in the South of political power, stripping them of their land, and thrusting them back onto the plantations under peonage and sharecropping. This period, coinciding with the rise of monopoly capitalism in the United States and its compulsion towards the super-exploitation of the African American people, marks the origin of the African American oppressed nation in the Black Belt South. 

Foster writes,

“Joseph Stalin, the greatest of all authorities on the national question, formulated the following classical Marxist definition of a nation: ‘a nation is an historically evolved stable community of language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture.’ … On the basis of this scientific definition, clearly the Negro people in the Black Belt of the South comprise a nation, and those in the North and West constitute a national minority.” 

Foster then proceeds to look at each of these aspects of nationhood and explain exactly how they apply to the African American people of the Black Belt. He therefore raises the Leninist demand for self-determination. “It is right which must be conceded to the Negro nation in the Black Belt of the United States, to be used under such concrete forms as it so resolves.” This means it is up to the African American people of the Black Belt South to decide how they want to relate to the United States, whether that means secession, federation, or some other relationship. 

Foster’s The Negro People in American History today

The key role of the Black liberation struggle within the revolutionary movement as a whole has been on sharp display, especially since the uprisings that swept the country after the police murder of George Floyd. Clarity on the African American national question is therefore more important than ever. Foster’s book on the history of the Black liberation struggle in the United States is a key work of Marxist-Leninist historical analysis. It casts a bright light on the revolutionary currents and material contradictions that have propelled the Black liberation movement forward. 

As Frank Chapman said in his excellent book Marxist-Leninist Perspectives On Black Liberation and Socialism, regarding the strategic alliance between the Black liberation movement and the multinational working class struggle at the heart of the united front against monopoly capitalism, “...a key to building such an alliance is the recognition of the centrality of the struggle for Black Liberation in the struggle for socialism in the United States of America.” Understanding the material forces at work, not only the current balance of forces, but the historical trajectory of those contradictions, is absolutely essential for revolutionaries to grasp as we move forward.

J. Sykes is the author of the book “The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism”. The book can be purchased by visiting frso.org/books

#RevolutionaryTheory #RedReviews #WZFoster #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

There’s no system better at crushing dreams than monopoly capitalism.

When Claudia Jones' parents immigrated to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago in 1922, “they hoped to find their fortunes in America where ‘gold was to be found on the streets.’” (Autobiographical History, Claudia Jones).

Instead, they found poverty, Jim Crow oppression, and despair.

These evils disillusioned Claudia Jones and showed her the hypocrisy of the so-called American Dream. She would become a Marxist-Leninist organizer, theorist and revolutionary.

After joining the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), Jones never stopped fighting against U.S. imperialism. In her article “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women”(1949), Jones analysis analyzes the special status of Black women under U.S. imperialism and teaches organizers exactly how to fight back.

The proletarianization of Black women in the United States

“Negro women – as workers, as Negroes, and as women – are the most oppressed stratum of the whole population. In 1940, two out of every five Negro women, in contrast to two out of every eight white women, worked for a living. By virtue of their majority status among the Negro people, Negro women not only constitute the largest percentage of women heads of families but are the main breadwinners of the Negro family.” (from “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women”)

Capitalism’s super-exploitation of African Americans forced Black women to proletarianize and join the working class. Black working women were often forced to do domestic work, completing household chores for white families and then coming back home to complete more chores for their own family. Unionization and legal protections did not extend to most domestic workers.

It wasn’t until World War II, where the U.S. needed to recruit new workers to the industries as hundreds of thousands of former workers went off to fight in the war, were Black women finally allowed to do some skilled work and explore other fields due to the necessity for industry to hire new workers.

These obstacles, including political and legal repression, lynching, rape, and many other layers of exploitation, need to be at the foundation of any serious analysis of the conditions of Black women in the U.S.

No women’s liberation without Black liberation

Despite this fact, political organizations that fight for women still ignore the importance of class and the necessity of national liberation. Jones criticizes the behavior of suffragettes and white petty-bourgeois women for ignoring the African American struggle in their fight for women's liberation in the 20th century.

Again from “An End to Neglect,” “it was the historic shortcoming of the women's suffrage leaders, predominantly drawn as they were from the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie, that they failed to link their own struggles to the struggles for the full democratic rights of the Negro people following emancipation.”

Progressives in the fight for women’s liberation ignored the reality that there is no women’s liberation without national liberation.

These same attitudes appear today, albeit under different arguments with different terminologies. Postmodernist ideology, popular among petty-bourgeois revolutionaries and academics in particular, attempts to convince organizers within the movement to view the struggles for women’s liberation, working class liberation, and Black liberation in competition with each other.

In J. Syke’s article “On the Origin and Development of Postmodernism,” he explains how postmodern ideology cannot recognize the principal issue around struggles for liberation and limits people’s thinking to subjective and one-sided analyses.

Sykes notes, “The basis of the postmodern idea [is] that truth isn’t objective, but rather, that truth is socially constructed… [postmodernists believe] that any given “discourse” should “stay in its lane” since it isn’t capable of understanding where the others are coming from. In other words, we have no universal, shared experience. This mentality leads to subjectivism and relativism, and an inability to strategically unite different struggles. Further, it makes it impossible to name any particular struggle as the principal contradiction that drives the process, which we could leverage to maximize our effectiveness across struggles.”

Postmodernism divides while Marxism-Leninism unites. Instead of showing the historical connections that prove there is a basis for unity among all working-class women and focusing on the fact that Black liberation struggles’ unity with working class struggles have created progress and real victories for the people’s movement in the United States, postmodernism pits the masses against each other.

Discourse is centered around criticizing white people as a homogenous whole with the same political and social interests or an assumed shared consciousness. This abstract, eclectic argument refuses to acknowledge that the multinational working class as a whole can be won to support the national liberation movements’ struggles, meaning there is a material interest for all working-class women when it comes to fighting against national oppression.

Only the struggle for a socialist society, where the working class has the power and self-interest to abolish oppression against all exploited and oppressed people, can erase the contradictions at the root of the problems Black women in the U.S. face.

Black women bring the Black Belt Nation forward

In the 1940s, Black working-class women played a huge role not only in mass organizations, but in labor struggles as well. As both workers and wives of workers, Black women’s militancy and struggle helped develop the struggle against poor working conditions, mistreatment, and national oppression on the shop floor.

At the same time, it was still unusual for Black women to be in positions of leadership within unions and mass organizations. Claudia Jones used her writing to combat manifestations of white chauvinism and fight against the tendency seen in the labor movement to dismiss the leadership capabilities of Black working-class women. She stressed that the advanced Black women could pull intermediate elements of the African American masses to engage in the fight against imperialism.

Jones wrote, “The strong capacities, militancy, and organizational talents of Negro women, can… be a powerful lever for bringing forward Negro workers-men and women-as the leading forces of the Negro people's liberation movement… and for rooting the Party among the most exploited and oppressed sections of the working class and its allies.”

For a communist party to avoid opportunist and self-serving positions and remain dedicated to its role as the party of the working class, it's necessary to recruit leaders and allies who have a deep antagonism against the capitalist system that develops the consciousness, determination and drive to end it. Black women often face the greatest humiliation, disrespect and discrimination from the monopoly capitalist class. This mistreatment and oppression helps to create driven and disciplined revolutionaries.

Greater than a dream

Capitalism crushed the dreams of a young Claudia Jones.

That didn’t stop Jones from organizing and fighting back against the rotten system she correctly understood as the greatest threat to national liberation domestically and internationally. Even after she was deported from the U.S. for her organizing, she remained a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain until her death in 1964.

The conclusions Jones reaches in her article still apply to the struggle for the multinational working class and the national liberation movement today. Black working-class women’s unique issues cannot be understood as isolated, abstract concepts. Revolutionaries must continue to deepen their understanding of the special status of oppression of Black women and all oppressed women.

No matter the consequences, Claudia Jones never stopped fighting for freedom. Her writing and organizing continue to pave the road for socialism, the only system that can abolish national exploitation and oppression forever.

It is the responsibility of communists in the U.S. to erase the illusions of all oppressed people in the belly of the beast and prepare them for struggle. The struggle for Black liberation and women’s liberation is something far greater than a dream: it’s a reality, something that can be done and will be done, especially if we listen to the guidance of the revolutionaries that came before us.

Delilah Pierre is a member of the LGBTQ and Women's Movement Work Team of Freedom Road Socialist Organization

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In Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle, the Soviet revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai wrote: “Throughout the long journey of human history, you probably won’t find a time when the problems of sex have occupied such a central place in the life of society.”

These were opening lines, written 105 years ago, to a message of undying love for the working class. In this pamphlet, Kollontai sketched out how capitalism perverts our relationships. It restricts the deep personal connections that we long for. To truly change our hearts, she said, we need to change the system. And we change it in the passion and solidarity of class struggle.

Many of the contradictions of Kollontai’s time continue today in new forms. The right wing demands that we follow patriarchal gender norms. At the same time, capitalist exploitation tears apart the financial stability and emotional bonds of family life. Kollontai teaches us how to avoid errors about this situation, and how this tension helps prepare the terrain for revolution.

Kollontai’s context

When she wrote, the people of the former Russian empire were waging a civil war against supporters of the tsar, backed by Britain, the U.S., and other imperialists. The people were defending the first socialist republic. They were in a mainly agricultural country, with some industrial cities. For decades before, factory workers toiled under brutal conditions. Peasants suffered the terror of landlords. During World War I, as men went off, women took their place in the factories and the fields. In 1917, some of these same women workers in Petrograd went on strike against the war and kicked off a year of revolution. They marched under the banners of “A people’s peace” and “Down with the tsar!” During the Russian Civil War, over 50,000 women joined the Red Army.

From the smoldering battlefield, the women’s movement bloomed. This movement brought with it a new view of family relations. Kollontai organized the first congress of working and peasant women in 1918. That same year, the new Soviet government decriminalized homosexuality, liberalized divorce, and allowed cohabitation outside marriage. In 1919, the Communist Party established its Women’s Section, with Kollontai in charge. In 1920, what was once a semi-feudal monarchy became the first country to legalize abortion.

“Sexual crisis” permeates the masses

The new socialist society was putting patriarchy and gender norms on trial. This is because it had gone through a sexual crisis stoked by decades of capitalism. By “sexual crisis,” Kollontai meant a widespread breakdown in the traditional family structure.

The capitalist sexual crisis permeates all of the masses. “It spreads from the palaces and mansions to the crowded quarters of the working class, looks in on the peaceful dwelling places of the petty-bourgeoisie, and makes its way into the heart of the countryside,” wrote Kollontai. “To imagine that only the members of the well-off sections of society are floundering and in the throes of these problems would be to make a grave mistake.”

Kollontai gives the lie to those who say that being gay or trans is a middle class thing, or a white thing. Neither can feminism be the property of rich women. The decline of the patriarchal family spares no class or nationality.

Material basis of the sexual crisis

The causes of the crisis, she says, are three-quarters economic, one-quarter psychological.

On the economic level, capitalism puts two contradictory forces into motion. On the one hand, it clings to the patriarchal and monogamous family. This is how it passes down property from one generation to the next. It is also how it maintains or grows the size of the workforce. On the other hand, the thirst for profit bleeds working families dry. Having one breadwinner is unsustainable for the working class.

On the psychological level, capitalism promotes unhealthy ideas about relationships, rooted in patriarchal gender norms. These include individualism, or thinking as if we are completely self-made and self-sufficient. This leads to loneliness, which the worker wants to fix with a “soulmate” to solve all their problems. Closely related is possessiveness. As Kollontai puts it: “The claims we make on our ‘contracted partner’ are absolute and undivided. We are unable to follow the simplest rule of love – that another person should be treated with great consideration.” The last factor that Kollontai identifies is women’s material inequality. This leads to chauvinist attitudes and double standards for the emotional and sexual rights women and men have on each other.

To get a taste of these economic and psychological aspects, think about how often we hear “I’m going through her/his/their phone.” Bourgeois possessiveness makes partners feel entitled to every one of the other’s conversations. Women’s inequality puts them in a position of dependence that often gives them no choice but to be on guard about cheating. This doesn’t stop at couples. How heartbreaking is it for an intolerant parent to spy on a closeted LGBTQ child?

From the bank account to the bedroom, capitalism wants us to base our lives around the traditional family. Yet it exploits our livelihoods and warps our minds. If we want to explain domestic violence, sexual assault, divorce rates, children’s estrangement, and LGBTQ homelessness, we need look no further than capitalism’s sexual crisis.

Scattered and unsystematic adaptations

Kollontai then explains: “The destructive influence of capitalism destroys the basis of the worker’s family and forces him unconsciously to ‘adapt’ to the existing conditions.”

To cope, workers adjust their lifestyles. They marry later to afford families. When they can’t afford them, they need abortion and birth control. They turn to prostitution, on one side to put food on the plate, on the other to escape loneliness or experience possession.

Workers’ adaptations are not immediately progressive; they’re a sign of strain. The thorns of the traditional family structure don’t mean that capitalism breaks it down in a good way. We should defend families left out in the cold, for example by fighting deportations.

The rise of LGBTQ and nontraditional relationships is another feature of the sexual crisis, and many make an effort to overcome the capitalist mindset. But Kollontai rejects the thought that new forms of relationships cleanse our hands by themselves. Today, we often see the misconception that some people are revolutionary just because they are queer, open, etc. “The sexual crisis will in no way be reduced whatever kind of marriage or personal relationships people care to try,” she warns.

But the working class’s adaptations are signs that sexist gender norms have rotted to their core.

The working class task: a labor of love

Kollontai sees that the sexual crisis marks at once the death throes of an old society and the birth pangs of a new. “It destroys the monogamous-property-oriented family. On the other hand, a greater fluidity in relationships between the sexes coincides with, and is even the indirect result of one of the basic tasks of the working class.”

The crisis unsettles capitalism and burns with desire for a different order. The working class’s search for love based on true friendship dovetails its struggle for emancipation.

Kollontai makes a comparison to illustrate. Picture, she says, a struggling business owner who takes from his company to bail out his family. “The family comes first,” he will say, and his fellow business owners will agree. In doing so, he undermines his class status.

Now, think of workers on strike. If one crosses the picket line and says it’s to support a family, the picketers will make clear: “The class comes first.” The others on the line also have families, but they know that they can only care for them through solidarity with their coworkers. Their families know it too. The whole class rises together.

Many who’ve lost a relative to police crimes understand. They seek justice for their family, but they know that to get it they have to raise their struggle to a higher level. They fight for all families who suffer from police terror.

Relations of solidarity rise above those of individualism, possession and chauvinism. Think of a woman who shouts back when a passing car harasses her girlfriend. Who wouldn’t envy her love? Think of a boy who stands up to a bully on the playground. What playmate wouldn’t want his friendship? Think of a mother who speaks up to a greedy school board. Who wouldn’t say her kids were lucky for her care?

Kollontai is showing that new relationships are not only possible, they are powerful. The working class learns to form true connections in the struggle. It will need love to change the system, and it’ll need to change the system to properly love. Cupid stands for nothing unarmed. He works only by using his arrows.

Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle can be found at this link.

Serena Sojic-Borne is a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization LGBTQ and Women’s Movement Work Team.

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To mark the 132nd anniversary of the birth of Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, December 26, Fight Back News Service is circulating quotes from some of his writings on the United States and its role in the world.

“Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters, the U.S. reactionaries, are all paper tigers too. Speaking of U.S. imperialism, people seem to feel that it is terrifically strong. Chinese reactionaries are using the ‘strength’ of the United States to frighten the Chinese people. But it will be proved that the U.S. reactionaries, like all the reactionaries in history, do not have much strength. In the United States there are others who are really strong – the American people.”

— Talk with the American correspondent Anna Louise Strong, August 1946

“Apart from those who are deliberately deceiving the people or are utterly naive, no one will believe that a treaty can make U.S. imperialism lay down its butcher’s knife and suddenly become a Buddha, or even behave itself a little better.”

— Statement Opposing Aggression Against Southern Vietnam and Slaughter of Its People by the U.S. – Ngo Dinh Diem clique, August, 1963

“The United States has all along attempted to control the Congo. It used the United Nations forces to carry out every sort of evil deed there. It murdered the Congolese national hero Lumumba, it subverted the lawful Congolese government. It imposed the puppet Tshombe on the Congolese people, and dispatched mercenary troops to suppress the Congolese national liberation movement. And now, it is carrying out direct armed intervention in the Congo in collusion with Belgium and Britain. In so doing, the purpose of U.S. imperialism is not only to control the Congo, but also to enmesh the whole of Africa, particularly the newly independent African countries, in the toils of U.S. neo-colonialism once again. U.S. aggression has encountered heroic resistance from the Congolese people and aroused the indignation of the people of Africa and of the whole world.”

— Declaration of Support of the People of the Congo, December 1964

“The speedy development of the struggle of the American Negroes is a manifestation of sharpening class struggle and sharpening national struggle within the United States; it has been causing increasing anxiety among U.S. ruling circles. The Kennedy Administration is insidiously using dual tactics. On the one hand, it continues to connive at and take part in discrimination against Negroes and their persecution, and it even sends troops to suppress them. On the other hand, in the attempt to numb the fighting will of the Negro people and deceive the masses of the country, the Kennedy Administration is parading as an advocate of ‘the defense of human rights’ and ‘the protection of the civil rights of Negroes,’ calling upon the Negro people to exercise ‘restraint’ and proposing the ‘civil rights legislation’ to Congress. But more and more Negroes are seeing through these tactics of the Kennedy Administration. The fascist atrocities of the U.S. imperialists against the Negro people have exposed the true nature of so-called American democracy and freedom and revealed the inner link between the reactionary policies pursued by the U.S. Government at home and its policies of aggression abroad.”

— Statement Supporting the American Negroes in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism, August 8, 1963

“The Afro-American struggle is not only a struggle waged by the exploited and oppressed Black people for freedom and emancipation, it is also a new clarion call to all the exploited and oppressed people of the United States to fight against the barbarous rule of the monopoly capitalist class. It is a tremendous aid and inspiration to the struggle of the people throughout the world against U.S. imperialism and to the struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialism. On behalf of the Chinese people, I hereby express resolute support for the just struggle of the Black people in the United States.”

— Statement by Comrade Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in Support of the Afro-American Struggle Against Violent Repression, April 16, 1968

“The Black masses and the masses of white working people in the United States have common interests and common objectives to struggle for. Therefore, the Afro-American struggle is winning sympathy and support from increasing numbers of white working people and progressives in the United States. The struggle of the Black people in the United States is bound to merge with the American workers’ movement, and this will eventually end the criminal rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class.”

— Statement by Comrade Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in Support of the Afro-American Struggle Against Violent Repression, April 16, 1968

“A new upsurge in the struggle against U.S. imperialism is now emerging throughout the world. Ever since the Second World War, U.S. imperialism and its followers have been continuously launching wars of aggression and the people in various countries have been continuously waging revolutionary wars to defeat the aggressors. The danger of a new world war still exists, and the people of all countries must get prepared. But revolution is the main trend in the world today.

“Unable to win in Vietnam and Laos, the U.S. aggressors treacherously engineered the reactionary coup d’etat by the Lon Nol Sirik Matak clique, brazenly dispatched their troops to invade Cambodia and resumed the bombing of North Vietnam, and this has aroused the furious resistance of the three Indo Chinese peoples. I warmly support the fighting spirit of Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State of Cambodia, in opposing U.S. imperialism and its lackeys. I warmly support the Joint Declaration of the Summit Conference of the Indo Chinese Peoples. I warmly support the establishment of the Royal Government of National Union under the Leadership of the National United Front of Kampuchea. Strengthening their unity, supporting each other and persevering in a protracted people’s war, the three Indo-Chinese peoples will certainly overcome all difficulties and win complete victory.

“While massacring the people in other countries, U.S. imperialism is slaughtering the white and black people in its own country. Nixon’s fascist atrocities have kindled the raging flames of the revolutionary mass movement in the United States. The Chinese people firmly support the revolutionary struggle of the American people. I am convinced that the American people who are fighting valiantly will ultimately win victory and that the fascist rule in the United States will inevitably be defeated.”

— People of the World, Unite and Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and All Their Running Dogs, May 23, 1970

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