Local initiatives, coalition building, national actions for jobs not war

Excerpts from a talk by John Parker from Los Angeles to the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.

My state of California and city of Los Angeles both had a terrible unemployment rate of 5 percent in 1999. As of September of this year it’s gotten worse with 12.3 percent in the state and 10.4 percent in Los Angeles. These are record high numbers and it’s a national phenomenon that must be addressed.

A major role of communists throughout history has not necessarily been fixated on building a large party, but one that was capable of leading the working class in a direction towards revolution.

One of our tasks must be to help our class win its confidence back through struggles for its immediate needs, not only to defend our class against those who threaten the survival of its members, but also to help fight off attempts at dividing our class.

How does that play out locally? The comrades in Detroit can attest to the fact that after successfully fighting off an eviction, the neighborhood participants get galvanized. Even folks who once may have looked at each other as strangers or maybe even adversaries can’t help but feel a close connection after such a win and want to continue fighting together. We’ve also had that experience in Los Angeles with some of the few battles we’ve won fighting off foreclosures.

But, if strengthening our class confidence and even desire for unity were solely based on the number of evictions we can fight it would not be successful. For every one that we win probably thousands more occur during this unprecedented economic crisis.

However, these battles are part of the broader political struggles representing more than just those individual workers but in fact our entire class. By fighting for a moratorium against foreclosures and evictions along with providing some immediate needs for those fighting to stay in their homes we make the few resources in time, people and money far greater than their sum.

In Los Angeles, we have been successful in helping to lead one of the largest union locals of the Service Employees International Union in that direction and there exists the opportunity to expand that struggle into city council chambers and perhaps the mayor’s office demanding an immediate moratorium. Whether we are successful or not, the struggle will strengthen our class and be a healthy contribution to the building of a national march for jobs in Washington.

In addition to our own initiatives we must begin building coalitions of sincere progressive organizations searching for a way to effectively come to the defense of our class.

In some cases, a coalition of just three organizations that have a base in our class can become a powerful force in any city and a basis for rapid growth with actions that reach farthest in visibility and influence.

Our class also needs to be able to recognize its friends and allies. Our class needs to recognize its members here in this country as well as in its reflection cast in overseas waters.

Building international solidarity has great potential in Los Angeles. This is where coalition building could be most productive because there are so many immigrant rights coalitions that should be working together, whose members are most acutely effected by the jobs crisis, whose family members are part of unions like SEIU and the hospital workers unions, and who have family members extorted into joining the military to gain either citizenship status or supposed economic security and who, like their Black sisters and brothers, are militarily occupied in their communities by racist police. All of these communities have their oppressions exacerbated by a lack of jobs. And, given our history in helping to build Black and Brown unity, we have the respect and trust necessary to initiate united action.

We know how successful we were in building a national coalition against the war after 2001. This was started with the building of local coalitions against the war, sometimes with different names, but in many cases with our leadership. With our party’s excellent analysis of what was most needed for our class at that time, the best of the progressive movement joined with us to form a national coalition which was able to incorporate the strengths of each participating organization and focus our energies—making the effectiveness of that coalition great.

Now, however, and partly because of actions of some organizations in the anti-war movement refusing to build more deeply into the working class, the media have been able to dampen the anti-war movement by ignoring it.

Building local Bail Out the People Movement chapters not only can make a powerful national organization with great influence. It is a way to effectively build the forces that will stop the war. When we have a march for jobs that makes it clear that the main obstacle to spending on jobs is spending on war, now you’ve got the remedy to rebuild the anti-war movement—a movement fortified with the steel of workers, especially workers of color, especially women workers, especially LGBTQ workers.

Our class needs to behave more like a disciplined army which engages in battles not simply based on desire to engage the enemy anytime and anywhere, but to calculate and coordinate the most effective actions.

Our leadership is powerful. We utilize the knowledge acquired from classless, communal society through slave, feudal and capitalist society culminating in the science of Marxism. We are well-equipped to help guide our class tactically and strategically towards revolution.