Greetings from Fred Goldstein

This talk was presented on Nov. 18 to the Workers World Party National Conference.

Greetings to the 2017 annual conference of Workers World Party.

I want to especially greet all the new comrades, candidates and friends who have come to participate with the party in evaluating past struggles and planning future struggles against capitalism and to build the fight pushing back exploitation and oppression of all types. We are here to chart a path to eventual socialist revolution. There will be ample time to discuss and thrash out the way to go forward.

Trump and his administration are hell-bent on bringing more suffering to the masses on every front and further enriching the already obscenely wealthy ruling class. They are fanning the flames of white supremacy, ravaging health care, workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, carrying out witch hunts against undocumented workers, unleashing the police and fascist forces on oppressed communities, enabling the polluters to destroy the environment, and the list goes on.

They are also unleashing the military, escalating drone attacks, and Trump threatens nuclear war against the DPRK [the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] almost weekly. Of course, Trump is an authoritarian reactionary, racist bigot, but the rise of Trump can be laid directly at the feet of the previous administrations. Both imperialist parties, the Democratic and the Republican parties, aided and assisted in the breakup of the unions and played key roles in the deteriorating conditions for the masses.

I want to call attention to the fact that this conference coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.  It is important for new comrades and friends to know that our party traces its roots back to that revolution. The revolution was carried out by the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. This revolution sent tremors of fear through the propertied classes of the world and especially the ruling classes in the imperialist countries, for it was the first time that an enslaved class, an exploited class, a downtrodden class seized and held state power.

It took the property of the bankers, the capitalists and the landlords and proceeded to construct a planned economy against all odds. The revolution went through many trials and tribulations, advances and setbacks until it was finally overcome 74 years later.

It is crucial to study the history of this revolution for its relevance to the struggle today. But what I want to stress here is that the Russian revolution was the opening shot, the very first stage, in the world historic transition from capitalism to socialism and communism.

It took place during World War I, the first major breakdown of the world imperialist system. There were revolutions and uprisings at the end of the war involving millions all throughout Europe and in the colonies. But under these conditions, it was only the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, who were prepared to take advantage of these events and overthrow the hated czarist and capitalist regime.

This revolution was forced to survive alone for decades in a world dominated by hostile imperialist powers. But the fact that the counterrevolution eventually prevailed in the USSR in no way negates the historical significance of this opening stage of the world socialist revolution.

In looking back, we want to reiterate that the socialist revolution in the USSR and the succeeding revolutions in Korea, Vietnam and China all arose out of the breakdown of the world imperialist system as well.

Fast forward to the present. …

Beginning in 2007, with the world financial and economic crisis, imperialism entered into a new stage, a stage of capitalism at a dead end. The capitalist system as a whole could no longer overcome its crisis of overproduction and has condemned more and more workers to unemployment, underemployment and poverty. This dead-end capitalism is also low-wage capitalism.  The bosses have created a global race to the bottom for the workers while they rake in huge profits.

This new phase of imperialism will inevitably open up revolutionary opportunities for the working class and oppressed. And just like in 1917, we must build the party in the spirit of Lenin, which is ideologically, strategically, organizationally and tactically prepared to take advantage of the revolutionary opportunities that are sure to come.

Let us be that party, like Lenin’s party, the party that its founder Sam Marcy sought to build, that will be ready for the coming crisis of world imperialism and U.S. capitalism, that is prepared to lead our class to victory.

Build Workers World Party.

Down with capitalism and imperialism.

Long live socialism.