UPSTATE NEW YORK, February 21—Progressive Labor Party and friends created new potential for communist struggle here. A militant couple who fought alongside PLP in Ferguson invited four members to a forum they organized commemorating the 50th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination.
They are a tough and wholehearted inter-racial couple, Megan and Keyon, craving revolution but complained of political isolation. The couple’s second interaction with us after Ferguson was communists taking the streets in a Fight like Ferguson forum that turned into a march through Harlem. After spending the weekend with us debating everything from identity politics to communist history, and taking literature like Road to Revolution and CHALLENGEs to read at the last time we met them, they began to see reformism for the marsh it was.
That Next Level S#*!
Megan and Keyon are staunch anti-racists and anti-sexists who developed a political line close to PLP through raising class struggle in their neighborhoods. The Malcolm X forum filled a whole room filled with college students, women, men, Black, and white looking for answers. Megan and Keyon quickly turned this forum into a struggle against reformism.
A Black professor opened with a presentation about Jamaica’s slave revolts. His conclusion: “Black people need to establish a world and space apart and need seeds in African culture.” Leave it to a reformist to turn exciting historical development into a mundane over-60 minute lecture. His nationalist politics received little response from the crowd.
Next, Megan talked about fighting back, not “watering down the politics to appease people” and wants “that next level S#*!” She got that ruthlessness about “calling out bs when I see it” in her work and in herself. She spoke openly about denouncing Sanders as another capitalist politician.
Then, Keyon have a speech about his journey from a “typical Black youth” to “being conscious and meeting his comrades in the PLP in Ferguson” and how that has influenced him to fight back. After some wholehearted struggle from us, he opened his speech with the poem, “Good Morning Revolution” by the communist writer Langston Hughes. Our friends’ presentations sharply contrasted in content and tone from the professor.
Halt Sexism, Reformism
During the Question & Answer period, two PL’ers spoke of how we are fighting for a communist revolution to create a world without racism, sexism and wars for profit, and eliminating the profit system all together. This can only be achieved though multiracial, international communist movement. The audience was applauded and asked questions. The PLP’s multi-racial presence of fierce women and men hinted at the kind of world we wanted to build.
Frustrated by the talk of revolution, the professor tried to end the forum by telling everyone to join his “action” to “improve the tactics of the police.” Boy oh boy, was that a mistake! He dared to clap in Megan’s face to shut her up. Megan halted the sexist gesture at once. She was called out the professor’s collaborationist politics with the police and politicians. “I’m not letting YOU get off talking about police reforms,” she said. Clearly, Megan and Keyon were fed up with reformism.
In a room full of strangers, the environment of reform vs. revolution made it feel just like home. We had passive supporters who came up to us after the event. No one— not even the righteous reformists—came out and said, “don’t listen to PLP.” In fact, one older man said, “this young woman in PLP just laid out what to do. They got a paper, a study group…She encouraged investigate…Now you can’t say you don’t know what to do.”
Taking Leadership from Working Class
After the forum, we met so many inspiring people—a woman who escaped NATO bombing of Yugoslavia; a Black soldier who understood the need for armed revolution—he also called out the bullsh*t of white privilege theory before we did; a social worker and a student who loved our ideas, and a self-labeled asocial film maker who took 20 CHALLENGEs to distribute.
During the post-forum dinner, our new and old friends discussed the need to organize with people. The couple realized they actually do have a base of friends to raise class struggle with.
We left them with 300 CHALLENGEs, which they agreed to distribute, a list of contacts from the event to create a political base. We also discussed the need for collective leadership outside of just Megan. Their friends and Keyon were willing to step up and give more leadership. They were excited about May Day and our East Coast College Conference on April 2!
They said the Party is the only organization where they felt “the most comfortable” with the people and where the politics and the world finally made sense. We were taken aback. Here is a bunch of people who came almost to the same conclusions without being in the Party. We aren’t the only ones fighting Sanders, voting, and Black nationalism. That’s inspiration!
All four of us PL’ers grew a little bit more that day, thanks to these brave members of the working class. We asked them, “you keep calling us comrades, you consider yourself part of the Party?”
They said, “there is nothing I disagree with, but I want to do more reading before I commit to a yes.” With consistent struggle and comradeship, the working class can look forward to having a communist base here!