A comrade said that we should be prepared for the presidential inauguration on January 20th. That raised the question, “What does preparation mean for party members and our friends?”
We started the meeting with reports from everyone about who they were discussing the fascist coup attempt with. Every comrade described conversations, whether they were through texts, chats, social media, email, phone and, in a few cases, in person. We had time for about ten descriptions.
To their credit, comrades initiated these discussions quickly after the coup attempt. We got more responses when we asked our readers specific questions, not general appeals for comments. One comrade sent specific articles and waited 24-48 hours before sending the whole paper, so people could focus on the specific questions. Throughout the meeting comrades reminded each other of other important people we had to contact.
One comrade said the people he was talking with couldn’t understand why people would turn to the fascists instead of towards communism.
On the other hand, a young married couple said they were afraid of just such a fascist outbreak. They are activists. They told us, “[We] may be in bubble, but about everyone we know is either socialist or communist.” Although comrades had talked to them before about the contradiction between socialism and communism, they still think of socialism to communism as some kind of progression.
A couple of Boeing workers referred to the coup as stupid or crazy. Comrades said it was fascist. One angry New Jersey hospital worker called it fascist and racist. She thinks the Democratic Party capitalists will try to silence Trump and his Nazi, racist supporters because they expose their whole plan for US-style fascism.
She was not the only one who zeroed in on racism. Another Boeing worker was quick to point out the different way the government dealt with the coup vs. anti-racist demonstrations. He liked Malcolm X’s “chickens come home to roast.” We talked for about a half hour about his and others personal history with racist abuse. He’s been an inactive member and is looking for ways to become more active.
A comrade asked a laid off Boeing worker for comments about the schools and the fascist coup. article. She replied that it was hard for her to put her thoughts into words when she is learning something new [about communism]. This in itself is progress, as she originally rejected communism.
The comrade initially answered that she could call or send a voice recording. She didn’t respond.
After talking about this with other comrades, the original comrade tried something different. He offered to help her with the math in her machinist classes. This led to a short discussion about the best way to learn new things, particularly political things. Our comrade said he learned about politics by discussing and debating with his friends. He asked her to forward the articles and the whole paper to her friends and to discuss the paper and coup with her friends, then to get back to our comrade with the results.
“I will …I appreciate your encouragement!!” she answered.
After this we talked about preparation for the Inauguration. Two ideas emerged. One said we have to get out a leaflet immediately after any fights at state capitals or D.C. The other emphasized that our preparation priority is to carry on these discussions with those most likely to join our party and who can be won to spread communist ideas to wider masses (like what the laid off worker was won to).
Our plan now is to organize one or two party meetings on the 21st. We will generate communist talking points to aid our comrades and their base in bringing communism to the anti-fascist fight. This may include a draft leaflet, but certainly will result in more give and take about communism with our base. And their base.
Meanwhile, everyone agreed to circulate the draft leaflet from the schools’ collective, while asking for suggestions. This will help prime some key US and international friends who can distribute hundreds of pieces of our literature.
A comrade was inspired by these discussions and the next day asked a friend what she thought she should do and what communists should do. She replied that she knew that a revolution would mean lots of injuries and deaths and wanted to know if it would be worth it. Her questions were about what a communist world would look like. Prompted by this question, which is common among our friends, we are planning to start a group chat to enlarge and enrich the ideas we have about life in a communist world and how to get there. We will ask her and a number of other friends to join this group and contribute their ideas.
Timely literature is important, but building larger numbers of communist relationships is key to party growth and mobilizing masses for communism.
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