On the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the Communist Part of China’s founding, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization salutes the party that has led the Chinese people through the fires of revolution and into the dawn of building socialism. The party took everyday people’s dreams for a better life and organized them to fight, bringing dreams into reality.

Mao understood that “without the Communist Party there could be no new China” as a historic truth.

For hundreds of years, the Chinese people were being crushed under the enormous weight of three mountains: feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism and imperialism. The CPC led the people in a righteous struggle to tear those mountains down. With the science of revolution, incredible sacrifice, and a refusal to surrender, they won liberation and embarked on the construction of a socialist society that continues to chart new courses.

A single spark can indeed light a prairie fire. In 1921, at its founding, membership was just over 50. 105 years later, it surpassed 101 million members and stands as the largest governing party in the world, with an unbreakable bond with the masses of people, because the Party is part of the fabric of everyday life, from farm to factory.

The CPC’s achievements have been rooted in the commitment to “serve the people.” And the achievements are truly world-historic: lifting nearly 100 million people out of absolute poverty, making breakthroughs in advanced technology, pioneering green energy and development, and building out infrastructure projects that make life better for the many. In unleashing the productive forces, China has truly reshaped the world. With its party at the helm, the brave spirit and blazing hope of the Chinese people are shining a light on the path to a brighter, socialist future.

Long live the Communist Party of China!

Long live international solidarity!

#FRSO #International #China

Colorado Springs, CO – On June 24, the family of Alex Martinez-Sarmiento filed a lawsuit against the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) for the murder of their loved one . They held a press conference, along with lawyers Mari Newman and Andy McNulty, at CSPD’s downtown headquarters to announce the lawsuit and demand justice. Alex Martinez-Sarmiento was a 26-year-old “father, son, brother and friend,” said the attorneys in a statement.

Members of the Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (COSAARPR) and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) were in attendance to support the family. Over a dozen family members and activists stood in front of the press cameras holding banners and signs that read “Justice for Alex Martinez” and “CSPD stop killing La Raza.”

On July 5, 2025, CSPD officer Connor Jacob Wallick shot Martinez-Sarmiento in the back three times, killing him. Since then, members of his family, as well as COSAARPR, have been leading protests demanding that Wallick be fired and charged for murder. Members of COSAARPR view the lawsuit as one step in a protracted struggle.

At the press conference, Alex’s sister Saray Rocha spoke to the lack of accountability CSPD faces, “If an ordinary citizen cannot shoot someone in the back and walk away without consequences, then why should Connor Jacob Wallick? Why should he get to continue to wear a badge if he cannot follow the standards and responsibilities that come with it?”

McNulty’s stated, “We see violence from the police over and over and over again here in Colorado Springs. What we don’t see is accountability. What we don’t see is justice for these families. And today we file a federal lawsuit seeking accountability and justice not just for the Martinez family, but for all the families who have had their loved ones taken by the Colorado Springs Police Department.”

COSAARPR and the family are determined to keep fighting for Alex and accountability for violent police officers.

#ColoradoSpringsCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #KillerCops #COSAARPR #NAARPR #FRSO #Featured

Los Angeles, CA – On June 17 at approximately 2 p.m., a cold-storage facility erupted in flames. Tremendous black clouds causing a burning of the eyes and throat covered the skies of East Los Angeles and the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Confusion was observed as people stepped out of their homes to look up at the sky, initially suspecting a thunderstorm, only to discover a capitalist crime in action.

The fire was at Lineage Logistics, the headquarters to more than a dozen other, smaller Los Angeles Lineage warehouses. It was situated between the two Chicano, working-class neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. The massive building was 491,000 square feet and was built in 2018. 85 million pounds of food were being stored in this facility, making their environment danger a biohazard one.

A recent finding states that a routine testing of the thousands of solar panels on the roof of the building caused the fire. The cause of the burning sensation and hospital visits was due to a warehouse ammonia pipe off-gassing into the air. How long the off-gassing occurred is a mystery.

On the day of the fire, a very brief evacuation order was sent out to the immediate surrounding area but was removed within the hour. The nearest neighborhoods to the warehouse did not receive text alerts, but neighborhoods outside of the immediate area did. A shelter-in-place order was announced during a press conference on June 17, but not much else.

For three days, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) attempted to put out the Lineage flames. It wasn’t until day three that LA Mayor Karen Bass finally decided to declare a state of emergency. Bass, the LAFD, and other officials have even said that the air is not toxic unless, “People have respiratory issues or come into direct contact with the ammonia.”

City council began to distribute air purifiers and organizations like Centro CSO, People’s Care Collective, Proyecto Pastoral, and the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network (BHIRN), took on the task of delivering air purifiers and P100 respirators to the most vulnerable. Ammonia and plastic particles are too small to be properly filtered if using an N95 mask.

A lineage of environmental racism

The Eastside of Los Angeles and cities like Vernon are no stranger to environmental disasters. East LA has a neighborhood population of 112,000, Boyle Heights 85,000, and while Vernon itself only houses about 300 residents, during working hours there are 55,000 employees on its industrial grounds.

Starting in the 1940s, investors and developers built five major freeways through Boyle Heights: I-5, I-10, US-101, and SR-60. Their construction displaced about 15,000 working-class people and destroyed over 2000 homes.

The area is a Superfund site. Superfund sites are areas declared as highly polluted, requiring long-term (sometimes permanent) cleanup. This is due to the highly hazardous materials, as designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The reason this area became a Superfund site was because of the former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon. For more than 90 years, the battery recycling facility caused plumes of lead and arsenic emissions that rained all over the residents in the surrounding areas. These plumes heavily contaminated the surrounding soil and groundwater and any recent efforts to clean up the hazardous materials have been found to be ineffective.

In 2020, jet fuel from Delta Flight 89 rained on five elementary schools and one high school. Park Avenue Elementary School in Cudahy called 911 and during their call the children cried out in agony and reported that they “Could feel the fuel on their clothes, flesh, eyes and skin” and it caused them “to feel sick, dizzy and nauseated.” Over 60 children were hospitalized and treated and crews rushed to clean the jet fuel from the schools. Cudahy is located in southeastern Los Angeles.

Also in 2020, after an accident at the Lineage warehouse (the one that is currently on fire), Cal/OSHA cited Lineage for 12 violations. Four violations were regarding failure to create/maintain emergency action plans and inadequate safety training for ammonia refrigeration, and other hazardous materials. In the past five years, Lineage has had over 40 Cal/OSHA violations.

In 2024, the same Lineage warehouse first caught fire. It was put out within 48 hours. Also in 2024, another Lineage warehouse in Finley, Washington burned for over 60 days. Only there, the immediate surrounding residents were evacuated for more than a day and residential streets were closed down. The smell of rotting meat and food filled the air for months as the warehouse was bulldozed, debris shoveled and transported away.

An underground crude oil pipeline exploded in East Los Angeles on May 22, 2026, when a construction crew installing a fiber optic line struck a pipe near East Cesar Chavez and North Eastern Avenues. The accident spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil, for days, onto the streets, forcing road closures. The oil seeped into the Los Angeles River and residents reported dizziness and strong chemical odors in the area.

The truth is that none of this environmental racism happens to folks who don’t live in impoverished, Chicano neighborhoods of SoCal. And if it did, a state of emergency would not have been declared three long days later. Lawsuits riddled Lineage as it departed from Finley, Washington. The fire caused permanent damage to the airways and lungs. But what will happen to the gente residing directly next to the current Lineage fire?

If you want to join the air purifier and respirator distribution, reach out to Centro CSO. They are gearing up to hold a community meeting to put pressure on the corporation responsible for the situation: Lineage. Proyecto Pastoral is accepting monetary donations so that they can acquire more air purifiers, and without the bureaucratic stops that government officials’ distributions always have.

Billionaire corporations like Lineage will continue building similar warehouses and causing havoc in their paths. The only way to make them fully pay is to overthrow the rich in this country and seize control of the means of production and distribution – and that includes their warehouses.

Sol Marquez is a longtime member of the Freedom Socialist Organization (FRSO). To join, go to FRSO.org/join to become a member.

#LosAngelesCA #CA #PeoplesStruggles #OppressedNationalities #ChicanoLatino #FRSO #Environment #Fires #EnvironmentalRacism

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

This morning, June 16th, there were multiple coordinated raids on immigrant rights activists in the Twin Cities. At least 15 people have been indicted, with the U.S. Grand Jury charging “conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer,” alongside a number of other trumped-up charges.

The fact is, people here in the Twin Cities correctly and courageously stood up to Operation Metro Surge and built an outpouring of militant resistance to ICE terror. People from all walks of life were in the streets to oppose deportations and ICE agents. Now the government is cracking back. These kinds of bogus charges are part of framing community defense and activism as terrorism, and they want to intimidate and repress the immigrant rights movement by criminalizing protest.

This isn’t the first go-round with the feds retaliating against anti-ICE activists since the beginning of the year, with attempts to scare the immigrant rights movement into submission. It didn’t work before, and it wont work this time, either. This is a serious attack, and we are going to stand with these activists. We should be prepared to defend all those who are being targeted and persecuted, and to fight the charges.

Stop deportations!

Protesting ICE is not a crime!

#ImmigrantRights #FRSO #PoliticalRepression #ICE

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 following is a keynote speech delivered by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization Political Secretary Mick Kelly, May 31, at the International League of Peoples Struggle/U.S. Political Conference.

Comrades and friends

Let me start by thanking and congratulating the organizers of this genuinely important event, the Third National Assembly of the International League of Peoples Struggle/U.S. What a powerful gathering! This is truly a room full of militants. Many of us have worked together for years and all of us are consistent anti-imperialists.

In the words of the outstanding revolutionary Jose Maria Sison, the late chairman of the ILPS, “imperialism is the last way out for the monopoly capitalists to postpone their revolutionary overthrow. It means the extension of the class oppression and exploitation within the United States into the oppression and exploitation of other nations and people abroad through the export of surplus products and surplus capital.”

The implications of this are clear enough. Working and oppressed people in the U.S. and abroad have a common interest in ending imperialism. We want this to happen as soon as possible. The decline of U.S. monopoly capitalism, or imperialism, the two terms can be used interchangeably, is accelerating. The decline is picking up speed and we welcome its demise. And we intend to throw gasoline on the fire.

I will be talking today about strengthening and broadening the people’s movement, especially the workers movement in the United States, as well as the key role of workers in the fight for democracy and the struggle to achieve socialism.

Also to be addressed is the state of the labor movement and what we need to do to move the level of struggle of the working class to a higher level. Finally, I will be looking at the issue of international solidarity.

Need for a mass line approach

To be successful as anti-imperialists, as revolutionaries, as people who want to and will change the world, we need to apply the mass line. While there is a lot that could be said about that, at the heart of it is “from the masses, to the masses.”

Or to quote the great Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, “In all the practical work of our Party, all correct leadership is necessarily ‘from the masses, to the masses.’ This means: take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own, hold fast to them and translate them into action, and test the correctness of these ideas in action.”

To put this another way, we sum up where people are at. Basing ourselves on what people are concerned about, on what folks want, we develop slogans, policies, plans, that people will take up as their own. It is in this way that revolutionary theory becomes a material force.

All of us who do organizing can appreciate the point that Mao was making. The starting point of our organizing needs to be where people are at – what their actual level of political development is. We are not organizing people in books or people who are the way we imagine they should be – we need to connect with people where they are at and systematically lead them forward.

One thing about capitalism is that it is an excellent teacher. For anyone who thinks that this system is fair, reasonable, or just, the capitalists, really the system itself, is always ready to teach you otherwise. It’s an endless disappointment, a Christmas that never comes. Capitalism is a failed system, but to help people gain that understanding – and understand who is the enemy and what is to be done – we have to be standing right next to them summing things up.

The accelerating decline of U.S. imperialism

The decline of U.S. imperialism is picking up speed. The U.S. share of world trade in goods has declined about 40% since 1970. The U.S. share of world GDP is about half of what in the aftermath of World War II. The U.S. has retreated from the economic architecture that underpinned the so called, “American Century.”

In recent years, management of the declining U.S. empire has been bipartisan. Both Trump and Biden disengaged from the WTO and adopted measures to “delink” the economy from China. While there are significant differences between the industrial policies of Trump and Biden, neither embraced a “let the market decide”, laissez-faire approach that’s touted by neoliberals

The decline of U.S. imperialism is sharpening all of the basic contradictions present in society: the contradiction between the monopoly capitalists and the multinational working class; between the ruling class and oppressed nationalities; and between the monopoly capitalism and women and LGBTQ people. This provides the material basis for the intensification of polarization, and the phenomenon of different states or even cities having different legal systems which accord people varying democratic rights.

The sharpening of the contradictions is in sharp relief in the fight for immigrant rights. Our organization views the attacks on immigrants as a function of national oppression, which means that the U.S. is a jailhouse of oppressed peoples, of oppressed nationalities.

Militarized ice raids and troop deployments to major cities is serving to pull U.S. society apart, and this can be seen in mass protests and rebellions (LA and Minneapolis), divergent court rulings, a degree of non-compliance by some state and local authorities (Chicago).

One aside here. After the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis, I arrived on the scene about 15 minutes after the killing took place. The car she was killed in was still there. And sure, there was sadness. But there was also anger. Repression gives rise to more resistance – so there were many clashes with the ICE agents.

But back to the decline of U.S imperialism and sharpening contradictions.

On a different level, and more reflective of contradictions in the enemy camp, are the government shutdowns that are becoming more frequent and larger with the passage of time. Then there are the impeachment attempts. And then there are the things that are not normal in modern U.S. politics, such as the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice and the prosecution of Trump’s bourgeois political opponents. One feature of the Trump administration is a willingness to push up to – and beyond – the limits of bourgeoisie legality.

Any major economic downturn or crisis will sharpen the aforementioned contradictions. The capitalists will act the way they always do – try to shift the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the working class. Most state governments (and many local ones) will experience budget crises, resulting in attempts to push austerity measures.

A scientific analysis of changes in society grasps the fact that changes in the economic base (productive forces and relations of production) will result in the superstructure (politics, government, religion, etc.) changing. And that the superstructure will alter the economic base, meaning that there is a dialectical relationship between the two. This is not a one-way thing either; certain changes in the superstructures can play a crucial role in the economic base.

Lenin made the point that monopoly capitalism was moribund – capitalism in the period of terminal decline and decay. As such, monopoly capitalism has challenges utilizing advances in science and deploying more advanced productive forces in general.

Taken as a whole, these objective conditions provide extremely favorable conditions for revolutionaries, progressives, and anti- imperialists to greatly expand our mass base and organizational capacity.

Building the workers and other popular movements

The working class is a class in itself; its existence is objective, and developing class consciousness means the working class becomes a class that is for itself. While it is true that the task of developing the workers movement in the U.S. is not identical with revitalizing the trade union movement, organized labor has a critical role.

The fact of the matter is that many of our trade unions, most really, are not only bureaucratic, they’re conservative and they often have a “go along to get along” approach when it comes to dealing with employers. This needs to change. So work needs to be done to put trade unions on a class-struggle basis. Practically, this means building up militant minorities in the form of caucuses or reform slates and contending for leadership.

We need more serious confrontations with the employers, such as the strike by 1,500 Teamsters last year at the University of Minnesota or the strike of packinghouse workers in Greely, Colorado.

The center of gravity for work in the labor needs to be wages and working conditions. Given that the working class is multinational and has more than one gender – there is also the fight against discrimination and inequity in our workplaces. To strengthen and broaden the working class movement. The starting point needs to be the “felt” needs of workers.

If we fail to do that, our efforts to raise the level of class struggle with fail. But starting points are not ending points and we cannot say that we must confine ourselves to immediate needs – our class is multifaceted and we need to address political issues as well.

A stellar example of this was the labor-initiated anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis, where nearly 100,000 people took to the streets on January 23. Some people say it was a general strike – it was not – but it is a wonderful example of what is possible when labor movement chooses to act. Actions such as this, in a very nascent or beginning form, give life to the concept of “Workers unite to lead the fight against all oppression.”

Strengthening and broadening the people’s movements

Mao Zedong once remarked there is “Great disorder under heaven – the situation is excellent,” That is a spot-on description of how revolutionaries should view the situation in our country today. It in no way implies indifference to real suffering that is the day-to-day experience of our class, of working and oppressed people at home and abroad. Instead, Mao’s statement gives correct stress to favorable conditions we find ourselves in to build large mass struggles.

It’s been said before and it can be said again – the U.S. is a prison house of oppressed nations, and the oppression visited upon African Americans, Chicanos and others is in fact national oppression.

The struggle against national oppression is a struggle against imperialism, against monopoly capitalism… so let me give a shout out to the members of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression who present here today. Your efforts to stop police terror, for community control of the police and in defense of voting rights are inspiring. Same goes for those of you in Centro CSO Chapters who are resisting ICE and have faced real repression. And an additional point on that – there is a grand jury meeting in Santa Ana, California – we reason to believe that it may well be targeting immigrant rights activists. If that proves to be the case, we will be certainly calling on all of you for support and solidarity.

Here we are, five years after the George Floyd Rebellion, the greatest wave of urban upbringings since the 1960s and early 70s. In those weeks in late May and early June 2020, nearly 25 million people took to the streets.

That powerful mass motion against police crimes and systematic inequality – national oppression – gave lie to the idea that conditions in the U.S. were immutable, that nothing changes. Anyone present at the burning of the Third Precinct building in Minneapolis can tell you this. Late in the evening of May 28, 2020, the last police, who had been firing rubber bullets and tear gas rounds, disappeared. There were thousands of people in the streets. Then the building went up in flames, Things do not have to stay the way they are. And they will not.

United front against imperialism

The U.S. working class is multinational; it is like a mosaic. There are also the movements of the oppressed nationalities. Real change in the U.S. requires a united front against imperialism, against monopoly capitalism. At the core of this united front needs to be a strategic alliance of the multinational working class and of the oppressed nationalities. Around this will be an alignment of other classes in conflict with capitalism, other sectors with particular importance, like women and LGBTQ folk, and social movements such as those who resist U.S. wars.

Together we will be unstoppable!

Democracy and democratic rights

Democracy does not exist in the abstract, its mode of existence, and how it is practiced in the real world is always in the context of the existing class relations.

Every discussion of the topic should start with the recognition that a capitalist democracy is a cash register democracy where the amount of rights one has and the amount of power one has is directly linked to one’s class position. And that Lenin was entirely correct to say that a capitalist democracy is a democracy for slaveholders at the expense of the enslaved.

That truth no way negates the fact the struggle for consistent democracy and democratic rights is extremely important in the U.S. today. For purposes of exposition, I am going to treat these topics as two categories, but they are two aspects of the same thing.

The absence or limitations on consistent democracy is an important feature of racist national oppression, and it needs to be combated with all energy we can muster. For example, the attacks on voting rights are disenfranchising millions of African Americans. Consistent democracy is the equal treatment of languages, especially on matters of government. On the national level the U.S. is adopting a chauvinist “English only” model. These are examples and further examples could fill volumes, everyone here knows that. But here is another point: by being frontline fighters in the fight for democracy we can rally millions to the fight for revolutionary change.

Travel around this country and you can see that the legal superstructure is moving in different directions. You have different democratic rights (say, reproductive rights and the rights of LBGTQ people) in different places. As political polarization sharpens, this country is fracturing. And that is not a bad things from the standpoint of revolutionaries – because we intend to take it apart and put an end to U.S. monopoly capitalism once and for all.

There is also the aspect of defending democratic rights and civil liberties. We all get that the U.S. is a repressive place. Arguably it always has been – lynch terror in the Black Belt South to buttress semi feudal property relations (sharecropping), the concentration camps for Japanese Americans during World War II, and communists jailed or deported in the 1950s. This is, and always has been, a repressive place.

That said, it is clear that a major assault our rights to organize, associate and demonstrate is underway. It is a danger that needs to be confronted. The state of Florida is criminalizing Palestine protests. Conor Cauley, an organizer for Palestine and member of the International Longshoremen’s Association, is sitting in jail today – serving a 60-day sentence for a felony that did not happen. Over the past year, hundreds have been charged with felonies in the anti-ICE protests around the country. And all sorts of reactionary and repressive legislation is moving forward in Congress, states, and cities.

In all cases we need to push back against the assault on democratic rights, but there is one attack on those rights which dates from the Clinton era – the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. This bill borrowed a page from apartheid South Africa and put the tag of “terrorist” on those fighting for national liberation. These “material support for terrorism” laws are reactionary, should be abolished and should be opposed by every person who stands for progress.

Working class internationalism

All of us, every, single one of us here, believe that working class internationalism and international solidarity are important. Every blow against U.S. imperialism ,be it in Palestine, the Philippines, or for that matter, Philadelphia ,weakens our common enemy benefiting the people at home and abroad.

We are all in this together and none of us can be free, while oppressing others.

We always must make sure that international solidarity is not just things we say, but it is alive in the things that we do. Right now, the U.S. empire is waging a war on Iran. Paper tiger that it is, the U.S. Trump administration is being defeated, humiliated in fact. Our task here is to unite all who can be united to oppose the war, and in cities around the country many of you have been doing exactly that.

There are other forms of international solidarity. Many have traveled on exposure trips to occupied Palestine and have been about to report back on the efforts of the national democratic force. We can work to promote solidarity between labor unions in this country and those under the boot of U.S. imperialism. Same goes for solidarity organized by sectors. All these methods can be employed and others too.

“Workers and oppressed people of the world unite,” is something all of us take seriously.

Socialist future

Mao once said that only socialism can save China. You know what? Only socialism can save the U.S. Monopoly capitalism is a failed, sick system that evokes alienation and anger.

The multinational working class has a material interest in bringing this system to an end, but hard work is needed to develop the understanding, political clarity, and capacity to do this.

In my view we will need to establish a new communist party that is capable of contending for power. I understand fully that this is a gathering of mass organizations, but I also know that questions of “How do we end imperialism?” or “How do we abolish the existing order of things?” are on the minds of many of you here.

So, in closing, I have been active in people’s struggle for more than 50 years. Never have I been as hopeful as I am now. Capitalism is a vicious blood-sucking system that drains the life blood out of the working class. Marx compared the big capitalists to vampires. He was right about that. And what do we do when we encounter a vampire? We drive a stake through its heart.

And on that note, comrades, thank you. Our future is bright and we have a world to win.

Long live international solidarity!

#ILPS #FRSO #Speech #PeoplesStruggles

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

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Minneapolis, MN – El viernes, 1 de mayo, una coalición encabezada por el Comité de Derechos de Inmigrantes de Minnesota y el Movimiento de Protectores Indígenas y respaldado por más de 60 sindicatos, grupos de derechos de inmigrantes, y otras organizaciones progresivas salieron a las calles para conmemorar el 20ª marcha annual el Día Internacional de los Obreros.

La coalición exigió que ICE se saque de Minnesota y la legalización para todos, puesto que la marcha siguió meses de lucha intensa contra la ocupación federal de la ciudad por los policías de inmigracion y confrontaciones militantes entre la gente y ICE. 10,000 manifestantes marcharon, cantaron, mostraron pancartas y celebraron durante la marcha del Día Internacional de los Obreros este año.

La marcha llenó la Calle Lako, el corazón de la comunidad inmigrante en Minneapolis del Sur, con grandes banderas, y contingentes de varios sindicatos, grupos de derechos de inmigrantes, grupos contra-guerra, grupos de estudiantes y otros movimientos progresivos. Como tradición para las marchas de MIRAC de 1 de mayo, la bandera principal fue sostenida por jóvenes, este año un grupo de estudiantes del colegio. La enorme marcha tuvo tres camiones de sonido, cada uno con su propio programa de discurso. La gente y las familias bordearon las aceras de la calle Lake para dar elogio a los eslóganes y brindar la marcha, saliendo de los varios negocios de inmigrantes para mostrar su apoyo.

Justo antes del inicio del programa, Consejeros de la Ciudad de Minneapolis progresivos tuvieron una rueda de prensa para leer la resolución del consejo municipal para nombrar al 1 de mayo como Día Internacional de los Obreros, seguido por una interpretación de baile por Danza Unida.

En la congregación inicial, las multitudes escuch