Mobilizing for Communism here ♦ Fascism or Communism here ♦
Letter: What Does Mobilizing for Communism Mean?
“Mobilizing masses for communism” is “our guiding principle.” “Our program.” “An apt slogan.” All this in our original manifesto some fifteen years ago. By now we should have a better understanding of its meaning, based on practice.
I read every article in Red Flag carefully, especially those about our work. And it seems that there are two contradictory ways we understand “mobilizing.”
When a government “mobilizes” troops, it prepares and organizes them for active service. It musters or readies them. Mobilizing does not yet put them into action.
But “mobilizing” people can also mean organizing and encouraging them to act in a concerted way, to bring about a political objective. In this sense, “mobilizing” does mean putting them into action.
I understand “mobilizing for communism” in the second sense. We mobilize people to take actions now that, usually in small ways, advance the struggle for communism.
We mobilize them for communism when we convince them to distribute Red Flag. To march on May Day, join a protest, or come to a party meeting. To donate money. To write for Red Flag. To talk to friends and coworkers about communism. To find ways they can put communist ideas into practice in their daily lives. To join ICWP and enrich the collective with their experiences and ideas.
Building communist relationships makes it possible to do this. Doing and discussing communist work together strengthens those relationships. I think this understanding of “mobilizing masses for communism” is key to growing a mass party now. And how the party functions now is key to understanding and explaining how communist society will function
But some reports of Party work seem to reflect the first (military) concept of mobilizing. That is, the present task is to prepare friends now to do communist work in the future. In this model, building communist social relationships means creating a context to talk to people. And, hopefully, to listen to them. Building a mass base for the party now in order to build a mass party later.
Of course, no collective’s work is 100% one or the other of these. Both center personal-political relationships and struggle. But I think the two meanings of “mobilizing” are dialectical opposites.
Our party arose in a period of capitalist crisis and mass struggle. The “Occupy” movement in the US and elsewhere. The “Arab Spring.” This is another such period, galvanized by the Gaza genocide and open fascism. There are huge opportunities for us to grow.
We need to develop, spread, and enact the best possible understanding of mobilizing masses for communism.
—Fired-up comrade
Read the ICWP manifesto Mobilize the Masses for Communism here
Letter: Fascism or Communism?
Fascism in Soviet Russia (social fascism) is the elephant in the room. Ignoring it gives free rein to the ruling class to discredit communism. And they sure take the opportunity to do so.
In France after World War II, communist ideas attracted a lot of workers. The Communist Party (which was not a true communist party) would get a third of the votes at national elections. The CGT was a powerful communist-based union. Many artists and intellectuals proudly claimed to be communists.
Now it is quite the opposite.
After the May 1968 rebellion, the bosses got scared and they orchestrated a propaganda war against communism. Newspapers, books, magazines, and so on were full of revelations about ‘communist’ horrors in the USSR – the Stalin cult, the NKVD, the gulags, the purges, etc., etc. The tone changed, too, about the French Revolution. The king and queen were now “martyred” by the revolutionaries.
In my small French town, very conservative, I had two friends who belonged to the Communist Party. They were loved and respected and they put a lot of work and dedication into spreading communist ideas. In fact, it was their life.
In the 1980s, they totally withdrew, embarrassed and ashamed because they felt they were associated with the mistakes and cruelty of what had become Fascist Russia.
They did not need to be. Communists must keep proudly defending their ideas – not by denying what happened in the USSR – but by condemning it. Purely and simply.
Social fascism was not communism. Communists do not fall back on cruel capitalist ways (prison, labor camps, famine, killings) to terrorize and exploit workers. Let’s quote Che Guevara: “Let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” Che reserved hatred for the enemy.
As one of my older friends told me once: “Capitalism did not succeed the first time.” Same with communism. It is difficult and long work to convince people. Let’s not get involved in the extent, exaggeration, etc., of the events but instead admit and forcibly say that what happened in the USSR was not communism. It is not that hard.
—Comrade from France
Red Flag responds: We appreciate the comrade’s letter, and we have always said that the USSR was never communist. The comrade’s explanation of the French rulers’ anti-communist campaign after 1968 is helpful. But we think the letter reflects the impact of that campaign’s claims about what happened (or allegedly happened). We don’t agree that the term “social fascism” (in its commonly used sense) is an apt description of the USSR at any point. We expect that other readers will want to contribute to this discussion.