Communists in the United States face a big obstacle: we don’t yet have the organizational means needed for overthrowing the capitalist state, and for leading the people to victory. Our problem is no longer that the bulk of the country’s population opposes our goals, like was the case during the mid-20th century. Since then, the decline of imperialism has precipitated neoliberalism, shrinking the aristocracy of labor and bringing most Americans towards being against the liberal order. A vast opportunity is upon us to connect with the people, and to raise up their level of consciousness.
For this reason, a growing number of communists are recognizing that we need to stop tailing the left, and appeal to the broad masses rather than only to the most socially liberal. But to make these gains, we’ll need a substantial party-building project, which our ruling class has kept away from us for generations. In addition to the newer liberal tailist distractions, like the PSL, the Communist Party USA was long ago captured by the forces of reformism. It’s not just that the country’s unions are dominated by liberal leadership, it’s that the institutions which U.S. communists have historically used to advance our cause have also been turned into bourgeois appendages.
However much revolutionary optimism we can have, this is the practical reality we must confront. Part of revolutionary optimism, though, is seeing the opportunities that one can find when they’ve reached an obstacle in the struggle. And in the absence of a viable American communist party, during the last few years such an opportunity has appeared. It’s come in the form of the anti-NATO coalition that an array of ideological forces, including communists, have formed in response to the proxy war against Russia. This united front, called the Rage Against the War Machine coalition, of course doesn’t represent the entirety of the solution. It does represent a crucial part of the solution, though, because it fills a strategic role that we absolutely need filled.
It was created out of a mandate by Libertarians and progressives to mount a serious opposition towards the new cold war, which has since carried over into opposing the genocide against Gaza. When the Libertarian Party and the People’s Party put it together, they did so out of a sense of urgency that’s now being felt by political actors who aren’t invested in imperialism; an urgency to resist the war machine by any means necessary. They were met with backlash from the imperialism-aligned elements within their respective ideological camps, as were the communists who joined with the coalition. The outcome was that this new grouping brought about something with true momentum, and an ability to connect with the most advanced sections of the people.
What further makes this coalition significant is that it’s connected to important anti-imperialist organizations which aren’t officially part of the coalition itself, but are providing a counter to pro-imperialist opportunism. The Center for Political Innovation, which is helping lead RAWM’s communist flank, has become closely tied to the People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. Uhuru has built real community power, has been targeted by the state because of this, and is now getting substantial media coverage due to the shameful story of its persecution. CPI and its adjacent groups are also tied to the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, the formation that’s working to resist U.S. military occupations from Europe to Korea. The Platform has become a major target of the empire-aligned dogmatic opportunists throughout the international left; as in addition to its association with these effective anti-imperialist orgs, it’s threatening the narrative of the dogmatists about the new cold war being “inter-imperialist.”
On their own, none of these things solve our organizing problem…at least not in full, or at the present stage. We will reach a stage when these gains within the class struggle and the anti-imperialist cause have been able to catalyze great additional advancements. That is if we work to build upon these gains, and further connect the anti-imperialist struggle with the class struggle.
It’s apparent that CPI and the groups it’s partnered with are coming closer to “strategic equilibrium,” where a revolutionary organization is no longer purely fighting to survive and can also go on the offensive. In terms of their combined strength, they’ve already reached that stage on certain fronts, because they’re increasingly able to wage narrative war against the imperialists. When this coalition more solidly reaches strategic equilibrium, it will mean communists have gained a means of institution-building that seriously threatens the present power balance.
The united front will do so by utilizing the strategy the Bolsheviks used when it came to alliance-building, as described by Lenin:
The petty-bourgeois democrats (including the Mensheviks) inevitably vacillate between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, between bourgeois democracy and the Soviet system, between reformism and revolutionism, between love for the workers and fear of the proletarian dictatorship, etc. The Communists’ proper tactics should consist in utilising these vacillations, not ignoring them; utilising them calls for concessions to elements that are turning towards the proletariat—whenever and in the measure that they turn towards the proletariat—in addition to fighting those who turn towards the bourgeoisie. As a result of the application of the correct tactics, Menshevism began to disintegrate, and has been disintegrating more and more in our country; the stubbornly opportunist leaders are being isolated, and the best of the workers and the best elements among the petty-bourgeois democrats are being brought into our camp. This is a lengthy process, and the hasty “decision”—“No compromises, no manoeuvres”—can only prejudice the strengthening of the revolutionary proletariat’s influence and the enlargement of its forces.
By establishing these connections with forces like the Libertarian Party—a modern element in bourgeois politics that’s lately shifted in an anti-imperialist direction—the communists with RAWM have gotten this type of leverage. Should Trump win this election (which is likelier than ever following the failed assassination attempt on him), we’ll be presented with a particular series of opportunities for exploiting the disputes inside the ruling class. The LP is seeking to pressure Trump towards ending the wars and dismantling the intelligence agencies; which is something we can’t expect Trump to do given his record, but it’s exactly because of this contradiction within MAGA that we have such potential to make inroads among certain bourgeois factions.
The element of smaller entrepreneurs who support Trump are doing so out of desire to bring growth, which monopoly finance capital is suppressing through its wars. If Trump won’t end the wars or re-industrialize the country, communists will be able to show themselves as the superior alternative to him; as the force that can truly bring the progress these elements want. The LP has the right strategy when it comes to Trump, not because it’s likely to substantially change his policies but because applying this scrutiny towards him exposes MAGA’s inadequacies. Which will help advance the anti-monopoly goals that we share with the Libertarians, letting our coalition fill the role within anti-establishment politics that MAGA’s decline leaves behind.
If you’re a communist who isn’t part of any of the organizations which make up the RAWM coalition, my advice is to at the least build ties with the coalition; if you don’t join one of these orgs directly, then maintain a friendly position towards them. There’s a reason why RAWM has continued to be targeted by the U.S. intelligence tracking network: it’s seen as a real threat. There’s much sectarian infighting within communist spaces, especially online, but the more we overcome these destructive tendencies the better able we’ll be to take advantage of this moment. Of the growing divisions within our ruling class, and the rising proto-revolutionary sentiments among the people.
The anti-NATO united front doesn’t substitute a viable communist party, but it does provide a viable means for outmaneuvering our enemies, and for bringing communism “out of the movement, to the masses.” Should we put in the work required for achieving these goals, we’ll come to be in a place where substantial party-building is much more doable. The communist parties within this network, namely PCUSA and Uhuru, are already building the foundations for that aspect of our task; the PCUSA has a fair amount of union presence, while Uhuru has established serious community power. As we continue to build up the united front’s influence, we need to advance these and other party-related goals. A crucial part of how we’ll ultimately put together the structure we’ll need is through unofficial marriages between the different communist groups which are both anti-opportunist, and compatible with each other.
CPI, PCUSA, and Uhuru have been forming such a bond; as we advance this process to its next stages, we must prepare to operate on a much bigger scale while maintaining strategic equilibrium. We’re going to need to both defend ourselves in much more serious ways, and go on the offensive in much bigger ways. We are on the right track towards gaining such a presence; at this moment, the foremost thing we need to do is avoid the distraction of online conflicts, and focus on building real-life connections. That’s how we establish the base of power we’ll need when this fight gets more intense, and the crackdown against us reaches its most extreme form.
————————————————————————
If you appreciate my work, I hope you become a one-time or regular donor to my Patreon account. Like most of us, I’m feeling the economic pressures amid late-stage capitalism, and I need money to keep fighting for a new system that works for all of us. Go to my Patreon here.
To keep this platform effective amid the censorship against dissenting voices, join my Telegram channel.
