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4/15/2024 On the General Discussion Document of the CPUSA's 2024 National Convention. Part 2. By: Thomas RigginsRead Now Part one commented on the general crisis of capitalism as described in the main general discussion document [GDD] of the 32nd convention of the CPUSA. This part continues that discussion but from a Marxist perspective. The GDD contends that the crisis in the US boils done to a struggle between two contending ‘’concepts’’ one based on ‘’capitalism’s drive for maximum profits, class struggle and the system’s inherent racial and gender inequality.’’ It’s true that Capitalism, based on commodity production for a market, strives to maximize its profits in competition between the capitalists but ‘’racial and gender inequality’’ are not inherent within the system. The system is based on the exploitation of a class, workers, who create surplus value expropriated by the capitalists. This system will work fine in a uni-racial environment or multi-racial environment of equal rights. It will also work in a society without sexual or gender discrimination. These features are extraneous to capitalism itself but are secondary characteristics derived from the historical context in which the system developed. This is why bourgeois reforms on these issues are possible as long as worker exploitation remains the basis of the system. This is why the civil rights movement of the last 70 years or so has made great reform advances but is not a ‘’revolution’’ in a Marxist sense — an overthrow of a ruling class and its economic system. The other concept is based on ‘’the fraternity of the working class and its conceptions of freedom, democracy and human equality.’’ This is difficult to understand. The US working class is only 10% unionized and 2020 exit polls showed that 40% of unionized workers voted for Trump vs 57% for Biden. The idea that there is in material reality now a ‘fraternal’ working class with its own concepts of freedom, democracy and human equality opposed to the bourgeois versions propagated by the capitalist ruling class has no basis in fact or Marxist theory, it is, perhaps well meaning, but in reality it is bourgeois reformist idealism dressed up, like the emperor’s new clothes, as Marxism. This is standard Webbism. Communists have to work to bring these ideas to the working class, not assume they are already present. The GDD presents two choices in the fight based on the concepts above— ‘’Indeed, the path ahead is fiercely contested: Does it lie with austerity cutbacks or union rights and a Green New Deal? Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again or Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community?’’ MAGA or Dr. King’s philosophy. This is very strange to find in a Communist document. No disrespect for Dr. King but his ‘’Beloved Community’’ is a Christian theological concept of universal human brother/sisterhood based on nonviolence and its roots are in bourgeois philosophical notions of liberalism and personalism— it is Dr. King’s deepest expression of his Christian faith. It is a noble expression of Idealism and definitely the opposite of MAGA but it’s not Marxism or anything to do with how Marx, Engels, or Lenin thought capitalism should be opposed, it’s really a throwback to pre-Marxist utopian idealism. It also shows how far the authors have detoured off the Road to Socialism. They are taking the party down the road paved with good intentions. We are told that ‘popular fronts’ have developed in support of the extreme right and of the broad left and center all striving for political power and this boils down to two basic groups— the MAGA group supported by about 1/3 of the country and the anti-MAGA majority of the broad left and center. The problem is there is no real ‘left,’ or ‘center’ for that matter. The capitalist control of the US is so overdetermined that the most ‘left’ politics we have (outside of many little groupings such as our own with no real power to determine policy) is practically confined to ‘’the squad’’ in the Democratic Party. Both major parties are conservative pro imperialist supporters of foreign wars and fascist governments serving US economic interests abroad. The DP is made up of basically moderate to extreme conservatives who will back some socially liberal reforms, while the Republican Party has been taken over by the extreme right and some neofascist elements hostile to any meaningful reform politics. This is a worrisome domestic development but by no means a sign that ‘’the GOP is arguably the most dangerous political party in history.’’ The policies of both parties are extremely dangerous when it comes to increasing the threat of a new world war, increasing the dangers of climate change, supporting genocide to further US interests and the support of Zionism, and both mock real democracy and ignore the general will of the people— the Republicans openly, the Democrats behind closed doors. Both parties will turn to actual fascism the minute the masses begin to move in a progressive way that threatens the domination of the ruling class. The only way to defeat the drive to fascism is to build an independent working class party as an alternative to the current duopoly of right wing control of the country. Next we are told ‘’A mass radicalization process has been quietly at work throughout, molding class consciousness and anti-monopoly sentiment, in turn, giving rise to a “socialist moment” among its most advanced contingents. Yes, a rising multi-racial and multi-gender “red generation” of young workers and students is coming into being. It is filling the ranks of anti-racist and pro-abortion movements, leading strikes, and, most recently, joining anti-war initiatives in response to the Israeli razing of Gaza.’’ There is little evidence that this is true— i..e., that this is evidence of a generational shift towards socialism as all these movements are compatible with reformed capitalism. The ‘’socialist moment’’ was an expression referring to Bernie’s surge in popularity running as a socialist in the Democratic Primaries but that moment expired with Biden’s victory in the South Carolina primary. There was an afterglow in the growth of DSA but membership is now down and Bernie has endorsed Genocide Joe in 2024. With Genocide Joe and neofascist Trump as the putative main presidential candidates it’s difficult to conger up an image of a ‘’red generation’’ of young workers and students coming into being unless you are talking about the growth of MAGA young Republican clubs. This is not to down play the importance of the growth of youth participation in mass movements to protect abortion rights (an across the board movement not a socialist movement), and the same is true for the movements against racism, sexism and genocide. This is especially true considering the GDD admits ‘’nearly 100 million eligible voters, stand outside of electoral politics, disillusioned with the ballot, their hope for a better life scattered among countless broken promises.’’ It is all well and good that the document says this must be countered by the CPUSA running its own candidates under its name. I hope we do it as for the last 5 years it has only been talk. Coming up PART THREE [The Fascist Danger] AuthorThomas Riggins is a retired philosophy teacher (NYU, The New School of Social Research, among others) who received a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center (1983). He has been active in the civil rights and peace movements since the 1960s when he was chairman of the Young People's Socialist League at Florida State University and also worked for CORE in voter registration in north Florida (Leon County). He has written for many online publications such as People's World and Political Affairs where he was an associate editor. He also served on the board of the Bertrand Russell Society and was president of the Corliss Lamont chapter in New York City of the American Humanist Association. Archives April 2024
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