The working class lost a great fighter against racism and for working class power when Dr. Finley Calvin Campbell died at his home in Chicago on August 18. A fearless, committed, and uncompromising comrade, Finley was still organizing meetings from his bedside in the last days of his life.
Finley was born in Anderson, South Carolina, on September 23, 1934. At age eight, his family moved to Detroit, where he lived until 1952. He was educated at Morehouse College in Atlanta and the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD in literature studying with renowned historian John Hope Franklin.
While in Atlanta, Finley wrote speeches for Maynard Jackson, later the city’s mayor, and was on a first-name basis with historian Howard Zinn. His PhD dissertation, mentored by Franklin, is a historical analysis of the literature of Black Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War. During a year spent studying French at the Sorbonne in Paris, he met his first wife, Liliane. After their marriage, she had to “pass as Black” for them to be able to live together legally in Georgia.
With his impressive credentials, Finley could have made a career in politics or become one of those well-known, wealthy Black intellectuals who are so highly prized by the capitalist establishment. But Finley rejected all of that. He immersed himself in the grassroots struggle against racist injustice and against the capitalist profit system.
A vivid first impression
Progressive Labor Party first encountered Finley in July, 1971, in Gary, Indiana. About fifty members of the Party and Students for a Democratic Society were picketing outside the U.S. Steel plant on the last day before the union’s contract expired. Finley was walking down the street, having just walked out of a meeting of Black politicians because of their anti-white stance. He lit up when he saw the protest, strode over, and joined the picket line. Within five minutes, Finley was giving a speech and leading chants through the bullhorn. “Who is this guy?” people said. He inspired the picket line with his booming voice and his call for working class unity against the capitalists. At the time, we didn’t know that he had organized the Malcolm X Institute at Wabash College—where he was the first Black professor, and from which he was fired for antiracist activities. We didn’t know that he’d run for governor of Indiana on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket, getting thousands of votes from white and Black workers alike.
The Party and Finley began to work together. He continued to organize activities in Indiana, including the original “Halloween against Racism” demonstration at St. Joseph’s College, complete with a powerful speech about the monsters and vampires of racism. Finley took a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and moved there with his then wife, Vicki. During that time, with Toby Schwartz and others, he was instrumental in organizing the International Committee Against Racism. One early victory was a full-page ad in the New York Times that denounced racist IQ theories and was signed by over a hundred leading experts in the field.
Fighting racists from Chicago to Tupelo
In 1975, Finley was a leader of the INCAR/PLP Boston Summer Project to confront the gutter racists of South Boston and integrate CarsonBeach. At a historic demonstration in Chicago, Finley was on the sound truck as we led 700 Black, Latin and white workers and students through the Nazi-infested, previously “whites only” Marquette Park. At a march in Tupelo, Mississippi, he was shot and injured by a cowardly member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In the mid-1970’s, in an obvious set-up, Finley was fired by the University of Wisconsin for his antiracist activities. His field of expertise was American Literature and race in the late 1800’s. The committee that voted him down included a Black meteorologist and a Black jazz musician. Neither had any grasp of Finley’s field, but because they were members of the school’s Afro-American Studies department, the university used them to provide cover to kick him out.
A strong voice for multiracial unity
Finley embraced the Party’s line that racism was rooted in the class conflict of capitalism. He attacked the Black class traitors who allied with the capitalist bosses and deeply believed that multiracial working-class unity was essential—both to smash racism and to destroy the profit system. He had no patience for fake-left terms such as “white privilege” and “white supremacy,” which mask the class content of racism and divide Black and Latin workers from white workers. As he recently wrote: “Remember: It was our old enemies in the revisionist and so-called black nationalist movements which revived this false term [white supremacy] as a way of confusing the working class about the true nature of their exploitation and oppression – not white supremacy, but green supremacy – finance capital. We won’t be fooled again.”
From the 1990’s until very recently, Finley taught at working class colleges and organized in the Unitarian Church to help win youth and people in the community to the antiracist struggle. From organizing study groups to raising money for international work to being a powerful voice and mentor for the Party’s understanding of racism, he never stopped fighting for the working class.
A true communist to the end
Finley did not shy away from the term “communism.” In fact, he lamented how some barely mentioned Marx and Lenin as “the shoulders on which we stand to see further.” Even when he used theological language, it was always in the context of Marxism-Leninism. He was unafraid to raise questions within our organization, a practice we all need to emulate as a necessity in building a vibrant Party. But he remained a true antiracist communist to the end. Finley was a tireless fighter, building an antiracist group of more than one hundred workers in the Unitarian Church from all over the U.S. and planning meetings up until his death. One of his last requests was for the Party to continue to get CHALLENGE to workers to whom he’d been delivering it without fail.
The struggle for multiracial unity against racism and for a world free of exploitation and oppression would have been far weaker without Finley. Our Party is so much stronger because of his decades of consistent and dedicated work.
Finley leaves behind Roberta (Bobbi), his devoted wife and partner in life and political struggle; children Phillip, Paulette, David, Kathi, and Mark; grandchildren Taylor, Bryanna, Lya, Lanny, Laïssa, and Anastasia; and a grateful international working class.
He also leaves behind his wisdom and profound commitment. He directly influenced thousands of workers, who in turn will continue to influence tens and hundreds of thousands. Finley will live on as long as the fight continues for a world free of racism and exploitation.
A memorial service in Chicago will be held on Saturday, September 23, on Finley’s 89th birthday at 4 PM (Central) in person or via zoom.
Memorial Service for Finley
Saturday, September 23
4 PM CT, 5:00 pm EST, and 2:00 pm PST
In-person info:
First Unitarian
5650 S. Woodlawn, Chicago.
Zoom info: https://us02web.zoom us/j/84617168894
Meeting ID: 846 1716 8894
Dial in: 1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Finley Campbell and the 1979 Tupelo Summer Project
Progressive Labor Party (PLP), and its allies in the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR), organized a Summer Project in Tupelo Mississippi in 1979 when the KKK claimed Tupelo as its national headquarters. Volunteers flowed in, among them Finley Campbell. Finley was an experienced fighter by then and inspired all the newer volunteers to give their best.
The Project built its base within the Black community. We canvassed the area with literature, organized meetings and study groups. By July, the Project called for a mass march starting in the Black neighborhood and leading to downtown Tupelo.
The Project organized its own security forces watching out for the KKK in white and blue. The marchers held a rally when they arrived downtown. An armed gunman appeared on the fringe of the crowd. He fired a round of birdshot at the two speakers, Finley Campbell and Carolyn Eubanks wounding them both. The gunman began to reload. Our security team rushed forward tackling him to the ground and giving him the beating he deserved. Instantly the police arrested the head of the security team. He was charged with attempted murder for stopping the shooter.
The local prosecutor convened a Grand Jury planning to indict our comrade by calling the victims, Carolyn and Finley, to testify about what happened!
The lawyer explained to Carolyn and Finley that our only chance in defending our comrade was for them to refuse to testify – to plead the 5th. Finley was extremely frustrated that he had to remain silent. He was a passionate orator who spoke in the powerful style of the preacher he was. He was electric. Silence Finley! Surely not! But silent he was in the cause of saving a comrade. He often talked in later years of the many experiences of Tupelo 1979. The most painful was not the birdshot—it was the time this mighty speaker had to remain silent. Finley set an example that day in Tupelo that lives on in our collective memories.
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For Duprey: To end police murder, smash capitalism
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- 07 September 2023 358 hits
THE BRONX, August 23—Killer KKKop Erik Duran threw a 40-pound cooler point-blank at 30-year-old father Eric Duprey while he was on a motorbike, murdering him within minutes. While the bosses’ media has been quick to do anything they can to smear Eric Duprey’s character, his family knew him as a loving father who enjoyed doing tricks on his motorbike.
On August 26, dozens of workers protested at the site of Eric’s murder, and demanded justice. A sign at his street vigil reads, “NYPD is the Blue Klux Klan.” Another reads, “Only we can keep us safe.” A march to the 52nd precinct was called on September 1.
We too want justice for Eric Duprey. Sadly, there will be no justice under capitalism, a system designed to kill and terrorize the working class with impunity. Workers need a system where racism is outlawed, where killer kkkops will no longer prowl the streets looking for victims, and where all workers will be able to live in dignity. This system is communism, and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fights for it every day. Join us!
On August 28, members of PLP visited the vigil and spoke with Eric’s wife and some of his friends. One of Eric’s friends explained that other cops saw what Duran was doing, but none of them tried to stop him. Eric’s wife said that she knew Raymond Chalusiant, an 18-year-old Latin teen who killer kop Dion Middleton killed last summer for playing with a water gun. Raymond lived only a 10 minute walk from where Erik Duran murdered Eric Duprey this week. This exposes the reformist lies that there are merely a “few bad apples” within the police force. The police exist to keep the working class in check, particularly by terrorizing Black and Latin working class communities. The cops, the courts, the Ku Klux Klan: All are part of the bosses’ plan!
Black cop, white cop, all the same: racist terror is the name of the game!
The Big Fascists, the liberal main wing of the U.S. ruling class, are trying to win workers to the idea that multiracial capitalism is the answer to these racist police murders. No amount of diversity initiatives or Black or Latin cops will end police murder. Dion Middleton, a Black correctional officer, murdered Raymond Chalusiant. Erik Duran, a Latin Narcotics Sergeant, murdered Eric Duprey. These Black and Latin KKKops enforce the same racist, murderous system as their white counterparts, all under the administration of Black ex-cop Eric Adams and Black Attorney General Letitia James.
Assassin Sergeant Erik Duran had already been named in two lawsuits and had 17 prior complaints, 15 of which were for “abuse of authority” and one for the use of “physical force.” But he is just one player in the ruling class’ ramp up of racist police terror in an era of expanding fascist control. In 2022, the New York Police Department (NYPD) conducted more stop-and-frisks than any year since 2015 (ACLU of New York, 2023).
Adams’ latest racist plan is to use drones to monitor the backyard parties of mostly West Indian Brooklyn residents during the annual J’ouvert celebration. And the policing doesn’t end in the streets. Black NYC Education department Chancellor David Banks just announced that elementary school principals will be holding regular zoom meetings with local police precincts. We cannot be fooled: While the bosses try to trick workers into supporting these initiatives out of concern for their “safety,” they are really trying to expand social control as part of the path to fascism. The Big Fascists need workers to obediently fall in line when they throw us into world war with their imperialist rivals.
No justice under a capitalist system
Erik Duran has been suspended without pay, but so far has not been arrested or charged with murder. We say, “NYPD–you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” Even in the very unlikely chance that Erik Duran ends up charged or even convicted with murder, no amount of jail time will bring Eric Duprey back from the dead or end racist police murder.
The ruling class depends on their killer cop army to prevent revolution and maintain social control. The cops use racist murder and violence as their primary tactic. No amount of reform or training will fix these issues. Only under communism can we end police murder and smash racism once and for all. Communism will remove the material conditions required for racism. The international working class will make sure that everyone’s material needs are met and focus on building community rather than tearing it down. Join the Progressive Labor Party!
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No justice, no racist police: Fight anti-Muslim state terror
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- 07 September 2023 347 hits
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Fallout New Vegas: Liberal capitalist propaganda
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- 07 September 2023 532 hits
Video games have become a powerful tool of capitalist propaganda, aimed largely at youth, especially working class youth. Call of Duty in its various editions may well be the best known and most vicious form of supporting U.S. imperialist aggression while desensitizing players to the true cost of war. But there are other, subtler forms of propaganda in other video games that steer players away from real-life class struggle, as in the popular Fallout Series (FS).
Teaching players capitalism is permanent
FS is a well-designed video game series that unfortunately teaches the players that mass struggle for communism is impossible and that only exploitative regimes can triumph. Unlike games like Call of Duty, Fallout’s anti-communism is more subtle and insidious. It critiques Red Scare McCarthyism as stupid, nationalist, and lacking substance. But the series promotes, instead, capitalist realism (the notion that it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism), pacifism, nationalism, and the “big-man” theory of history, rejecting the role of the working class in making and changing history.
The Fallout series is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the Cold War didn’t end, energy scarcity leads to resource wars, and a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and China devastates the planet. Fallout New Vegas (FNV) lets the player choose among factions vying for control of the city of New Vegas, the Hoover Dam, and the Mojave Desert. The main factions are Caesar’s Legion, a Roman-style slave empire; Mr. House, a billionaire modeled after Howard Hughes currently in control of the region; the NCR, a liberal capitalist nation expanding from the West Coast; and an “independent” New Vegas.
All of these options are simply different flavors of capitalism. All options involve keeping class relations, money, and markets, because the publishers and developers think there are no alternatives.
Workers divided, virtually
There are other groups in the game including the Followers of the Apocalypse (FA), a liberal group trying to do good works like medical care and education. But FA lacks political goals for the larger region and does not intend to take up arms to defend their community. They are the non-violent alternative that the bosses offer us as an alternative to mass communist rebellion. Another group is the Bright Brotherhood, a ghoul separatist cult. Led by a “prophet” named Jason Bright, the Bright Brotherhood seeks a “promised land” for Ghouls. In this world, human workers are bigoted against Ghouls and Super Mutants (in an echo of white prejudice against Black and Latin workers in the real world). Ghouls are slowly rotting but still walking, talking, and thinking, but they sometimes go “feral” and start indiscriminately attacking others. Super Mutants are humans who were genetically altered to be super soldiers like the Incredible Hulk. Many Supermutants attack humans on sight and have severe brain damage from the transformation. As a result, humans treat both Super Mutants and Ghouls as threats to survival.
Within this fictional world, ghoul separatism makes sense. Nothing can be done about their violent medical condition, making widespread acceptance by humans impossible. In the real world, however, all workers are human and the oppression of Black and Latin workers, women workers, disabled workers, and LGBTQ workers is something we need to fight as a united revolutionary working class. If we divide ourselves into small groups based on our identities and try to solve each problem individually, the bosses will destroy us one at a time. Once again, FNV misleads us.
No faction or organization advances international solidarity or complete victory over exploitation. There’s no vision of defeating the NCR, the Legion, or Mr. House completely. The slave empire to the east continues to grow and enslave more workers. The rotten liberal democracy to the west continues to exploit workers through wage-labor and by allowing outright slavery within its borders. If either one grows powerful enough, it will seize control of New Vegas. The writers of FNV sell us strategies doomed to fail.
Bosses’ individualism on your gaming system
FNV’s central premise is hyper individualism that promotes the big man theory of history. The player vies with other faction leaders as the primary movers of history. You as the protagonist are a one-person army who decides if people get water and power and who wins the war for control of New Vegas. You start out as a lowly courier and through hard-work and determination become unstoppable. Similarly, Mr. House and Caesar are supposed to be individuals who created their own fates because of their sheer intellect and skill. In the real world, however, societies are driven by material conditions and class struggle rather than individual heroes.
Exceptional individuals exist in history, but they impact society history only when material conditions allow it. Adolf Hitler was a skilled propagandist, but his Nazis only ruled Germany because German capitalists faced insurmountable crises. Bronze Age despots like the Pharaohs were ruthless and cunning, but they only came to power because the emerging priest class needed a state to help exploit workers. FNV advances the bosses’ notion of individualism and cults of personality instead of worker solidarity.
One can legitimately praise FNV for its writing, immersive story-telling, and game-play, but its political message is poison. Even though the Fallout series is sold as being more nuanced, with diverse political representation, its message is anti-communist and counterrevolutionary. Put down the game controller, grab your best friends, and head out to share CHALLENGE with others and engage in antiracist battles against the real enemies, the capitalist class!
