Sharpening Ideological and Practical Struggle here ♦ A Life in Struggle here ♦
Sharpening Ideological and Practical Struggle Advances the Fight for Communism
Comrade Tom patiently helped many comrades and friends use dialectical materialism to deepen our understanding and improve our fight for communism. To make it the property of the workers, not only of a few philosophers.
One thing Tom explained was that Soviet philosophers tended toward mechanical materialism when discussing materialism versus idealism. That weakness has affected us also.
He explained that in dialectical materialism, the “Ideal” is not some abstract dream. It’s the way the working class turns its real material experiences and struggles into a conscious goal for transforming society. Communism is an Ideal. It comes from material life, and, through organized action, it will reshape material life.
The Ideal is not being idealist. Humans’ consciousness doesn’t only reflect the material world but also creates and changes it. The world as it is doesn’t meet the masses’ needs, and the masses decide to change it through their own activity.
As communists we have decided to change the world by fighting for communism.
Marx said that when ideas grip the masses, they become a material force capable of changing history. This is why we can’t cling to the illusion that spontaneous fights with the bosses will lead to revolution on their own. That is mechanical materialism. It keeps the struggle trapped within capitalism.
To win communism, communist ideas and actions must lead. Without that leadership, the masses are left to battle the system without the goal to replace it.
Tom showed that, as dialectics teaches, the contradiction between capitalist and communist practice and ideas is sharpening as the crisis deepens. The main weakness of the international communist movement has been right opportunism. Instead of uniting with “lesser evil” capitalists, we must unite with the international working class for communism.
Struggling for communism gives us confidence that workers and youth can see what we see. Sharpening ideological contradictions shows us how to win the struggle for communism. We won’t be intimidated by the capitalists, imperialists and their reformist politicians.
As capitalist relations of production developed in China, so too did the theory of “non-antagonistic” contradictions.
Tom and others explained that there are no non-antagonistic contradictions. All contradictions are the unity and struggle of opposites. All contradictions have to be resolved by sharpening the struggle so that communist ideas and practices defeat capitalist ideas and practices. So we can build unity on a higher level. That’s the way forward.
We don’t fear that struggle. Instead, we welcome it as our opportunity to advance the fight for communism.
The formulation about non-antagonistic contradictions wasn’t just an abstract philosophical error. It was used to justify Chinese communists uniting with the bourgeois nationalists to fight the Japanese invaders instead of fighting for communism. This led to many Communists being killed by the nationalists.
This would be akin to supporting and uniting with Russian and Chinese imperialists against US imperialists rather than mobilizing the masses for communist revolution. Or supporting politicians like Gavin Newsom or Zohran Mamdani against Trump instead of showing that no capitalist politician is our friend or savior and that only communism will meet the masses’ needs.
—A Comrade
A Life in Struggle
With nostalgia we say goodbye to a great comrade who is still present. We affirm it in our collective memory and in our struggle. His departure hurts, but his example remains firm, like a flag that does not fall.
Tom was a member of the International Communist Workers’ Party not only out of political conviction, but also out of coherence of life. In every task he assumed, in every discussion, in every day of struggle, he demonstrated that communism is not an empty discourse. It is a practice of daily life made up of commitment, discipline and solidarity.
Today we remember him with gratitude because he left his mark on the organization and on the consciousness of all comrades. I did not have the pleasure of meeting him personally. But I did have the pleasure of meeting him through chat, in Zoom meetings and I remember him with all his dedication, passion and commitment. Tom, I am grateful for your words and your help when I joined the collective. A great example to follow.
The best tribute we can pay him is not just words, but to continue the struggle, strengthen the Party, raise the Red Flag and advance with more clarity and determination towards the revolution for which he gave his energy and his life.
We say we are present, in every struggle, in every comrade who does not give up, in every step towards communism.
Until victory always!
His example lives on in the struggle of the ICWP!
—Comrade in El Salvador
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