Revolution & finances

Following are excerpts from a talk given by Steve Kirschbaum on Nov. 15 at the Workers World Party 50th anniversary national conference.

Finances and resources for literature, picket signs, airfare, printing, Web costs, and an endless list of necessities for waging the global class struggle must always be uppermost in our minds.

Revolutionaries and revolutionary organizations as well as any organizations of the working class, such as unions and community groups, have wrestled with this critical issue throughout the history of class struggle.

The most decisive and indispensable resource of any revolutionary party is sitting right here in this hall — class conscious, disciplined, self-sacrificing revolutionary fighters. To take on the racist, bloodthirsty ruling class, however, militant zeal is not enough.

I’m currently reading the spoken-autobiography “Fidel Castro,” a magnificent book of over 100 hours of comrade Fidel’s revolutionary wisdom. In it he describes Cuba’s heroic internationalism in Africa.

From 1975 to 1991 revolutionary Cuba sent more than 300,000 combatants and 50,000 civilians to Angola to aid in the defeat of reactionaries, U.S. CIA puppets and the racist apartheid South African military. It was a historic rout of racism and a tremendous victory for liberation.

Fidel explains that the all-voluntary Cuban fighters were not only armed with revolutionary zeal but with hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces, more than 1,000 anti-aircraft weapons and MiG-23 air units. In a word, resources.

In the November 1994 pre-conference document by Comrade Sam Marcy — “Building a Proletarian Party” — Sam addresses this critical question: “Nothing would be worse for the party than to be confronted with opportunities to engage in new class battles and not have the wherewithal to sustain them. ...

A party of workers and oppressed

“There is nothing worse for a party which has anticipated the development of the class struggle and analyzed its driving forces than to find when the opportune time arrives that it is unable to participate because of its financial situation.”

We are a party of workers and oppressed people who are a fierce and mortal enemy of the ruling class and all its agents. As such we don’t receive strings-attached grants and the like. Our politics are not for sale. Unlike others in our movement who allow “funding streams” and “agency allocations” to dictate what they say and do, we speak and act in our own voice. Therefore the task of fueling and funding our revolution falls on every single member and friend. It is too vital a necessity for it to be viewed as the responsibility of a few comrades or committees.

Every union-conscious worker knows that financing our unions, as the workers’ first line of defense against the evils of capitalism, is every member’s responsibility. Dues are required for fighting the day-to-day battles — firings, disciplines, corporate theft on the job, for building strike funds to provide concrete solidarity and engaging in struggles for justice in the community. In cases where unions are led by class-conscious leaders like Steel Workers 8751, dues provided resources to bring the staff of officers and stewards and a sound truck to Pittsburgh to join that historic action against the G20.

Unions organizationally assure finances through “union shops” and automatic dues check off. Bosses understand the value of this and fight it tooth and nail. We cannot do that yet, although a modified version is possible with new technology where comrades and friends can arrange automatic payment from their accounts to the party.

As with all organizational questions the party proceeds based on our political principles. Every comrade’s situation is unique — some working, some unemployed, some in relatively good-paying union jobs, some on disability benefits. The key is that every comrade and friend owns the problem of finances and resources and gives what they can, and/or helps find creative ways to raise funds. We must always pass the hat, put out the donation can and probe every available opportunity to get our class the funds required to finance the struggle for liberation.

We take the analysis of a global class struggle seriously and literally. Our class cannot afford to have its vanguard run out of ammo! Build the WWP Fighting Fund!