Workers Bring Communist Literature to Soldiers Occupying Downtown Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (USA), June 26— “Remember, you guys, these people are just like us,” repeated a military veteran to the comrades going with him to distribute communist literature to National Guard troops patrolling the city streets.
Just like with the global pandemic, the U.S. ruling class scrambled to find ways to quell the uprisings brought on by the racist murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. Their biggest attempts at suppression were curfews and deployments of the National Guard. They hoped we’d quiver in fear. Instead, we made it our mission to get our literature to the soldiers.
Comrades of multiple generations, male and female, visited the National Guard twice. Our sign read: “Soldier don’t shoot your class brothers and sisters! Join them!” We brought the party’s military pamphlet, a leaflet and Red Flag.
The first time there were four of us. Almost every solider that we talked to took the three items. For the second visit there were three of us. This time, not every Soldier took the literature but many did. Also a soldier gave us his contact information. Altogether, soldiers took well over 50 of the three items.
This action came in the wake of the criticism that the Party’s military work was weaker than the party’s other areas of work. There was initial resistance, based mainly on fear and the lack of confidence that soldiers will accept our ideas. Collective struggle made this action possible. Most important was the leadership of the army veteran comrade.
This comrade joined the army right after high school precisely to organize in the military. His experience gave us all confidence.
As we walked towards the soldiers, he kept repeating “remember, you guys, these people are just like us.” Earlier, he had figured out where the National Guard was stationed, made reconnaissance trips to the area and came up with the actual movement that we would be doing. He took on most of the leadership, too, when talking to soldiers the first time. This gave the rest of us the confidence we needed to be more open with our politics on the second trip.
“We’re with you guys, we have the same enemy,” we said to the soldiers. “Most of us that join the military are from the working class; the sons and daughters of the rich do not join the military.” We told the soldiers posted in Downtown Los Angeles that “historically, soldiers have led revolutions.”
Their responses ranged from “Hell yeah!” to “Yeah, my parents have taught me that.”
Three younger comrades gave the main political leadership to this work. In doing it, we developed as communists and our commitment to the party grew. “We really have to say we’re communist,” a comrade critiqued during the first visit. “We have to get contacts,” insisted another.
After our first visit, we discussed both our strengths and weaknesses in the work. This led to advancements that we made the second time around. We received a great responses from soldiers and civilians and were actually able to make contacts while being out right with our politics.
Rather than making things up as we go along (as the ruling class has done with the pandemic and the uprisings) ICWP makes plans. We intend to utilize the masses’ distaste for the capitalist regime to mobilize for communism. Whether it’s police brutality, mass incarceration of Black and Latinx people disproportionately, poverty, or abolishing the police, no true justice can come unless we first start by uprooting the core problem that breeds the rest: Capitalism.
In order for the working class to eventually overthrow capitalism and establish communism our brothers and sisters in the armed forces are indispensable. The Party internationally is developing this work and taking the initial steps to guarantee it. We are working hard to identify the contradictions holding our military work back and, through collective struggle, to make sure that it happens. We are working collectively to overcome our barriers that may hold us back. By doing this we are putting communist work into action.
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