Preparing for May Day: Learn from The Past to Plan for The Future
SEATTLE (US)— “If you are feeling disheartened, visit someone you would like to win to the party,” recommended an ICWP member to her comrades before the pandemic. “It will get you back on track.”
The pandemic made visits problematic, particularly during last winter’s spike. Nonetheless, the idea behind this advice remains valid. The health of our party collectives rests, not only on how many, but also what kind of relationships we have with our base. Clubs must constantly return to this question.
Last summer’s massive anti-racist demonstrations ignited communist debates at Boeing and the schools. Our collective mobilized more than the usual number of friends and comrades.
We didn’t want to lose momentum. We turned to the internet to follow up.
Learn from the Masses
At first, we concentrated too much on passive, mass digital distribution. Later, we focused on base building. We struggled with friends and new comrades to write and distribute Red Flag and put communist politics upfront in whatever they were doing.
This approach requires more time and flexibility. Even mass distribution requires personal follow up. We aimed to develop bigger and more collectives, but the way forward involved many twists and turns.
For example, a Boeing comrade wanted to save time and energy by sending Red Flag to forty friends in a text blast. Eight didn’t want to be in such a large group. They wanted to receive the paper individually or in smaller groups where they know everybody. We made this change and they continued the political conversation.
Nurturing our political and personal relationships online resulted in more feedback about our communist politics. Eventually, we got beyond just offering our literature and asking general questions like “What do you think?”
We now spend more time online talking with people about their lives and how to help each other. We highlight articles that would interest our friends, and ask them to help us improve them. We get the greatest response to articles with communist answers to mass unemployment, racism, sexism and xenophobia. Our friends are drawn to local and worldwide articles describing the party’s role in working class struggle.
Party Collective Ups the Struggle
At a recent meeting, comrade L. talked about a walk with a former co-worker. The friend is angry that Amazon may build a new distribution center in her neighborhood.
- asked if she had seen our movie review Nomadland: Hollywood Fronts for Amazon in the last issue of Red Flag, which she gets digitally. She hadn’t, so the comrade gave her a print copy, directing her to this review.
The co-worker also told L. about a disturbing conversation. Her sister, denying anti-Asian racism, asked, “Do you know any Asians who have been discriminated against?” Our friend was so angry (her daughter-in-law is from Southeast Asia) that she left the room.
Our collective asked the comrade if she had discussed our communist response to the anti-Asian, sexist-racist murders in Atlanta. L. agreed to send her friend a link to those articles.
Our political line is always the same, but our approaches vary depending on individual circumstances. L. will talk with her friend about both articles, soliciting her input and emphasizing that the only way to fight racist, sexist, xenophobic attacks on the working class is by joining ICWP and fighting for a communist world.
Plan for the Near Future
As May Day approaches, the government is loosening Covid restrictions. Our May Day plans involve more than just bringing our communist politics to May Day activities—as important as that is.
We’ve planned small social gatherings to help cement relationships we’ve built over the last year. We’ll visit Portland to see new and old friends who have reached out to us. Pandemic permitting, we plan some trips around the US with new comrades and friends, and eventually international trips.
Meanwhile, more people are taking to the streets to fight the police murders of George Floyd, Adam Toledo and Daunte Wright, and the racist-sexist murders in Atlanta. Pandemic or no pandemic, workers are on the move around the world.
We must adapt what we learn in order to move forward. We must nurture more communist relationships, both digitally and in-person, whatever the situation.
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