Our final class is an opportunity to synthesize the wide-ranging themes addressed, with a particular focus on the current state of U.S. politics and the global fight against fascism. We consider what lessons organizers can learn from the history of communist struggles against fascism, both within the U.S. and internationally. We also examine the contemporary moment, and in particular the election of Biden-Harris, as well as the persistence of Trumpism, in light of the historical relationship between liberalism and fascism. Finally, we explore what we can do to develop the power and organizational frameworks necessary to stand strong against fascism, while also continuing to advance our collective agenda of socialism and liberation. Class materials: The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, “In the news roundtable: The role of the racist mob in American politics” https://soundcloud.com/thesocialistprogram/in-the-news-the-role-of-the-racist-mob-in-american-politics Glen Ford, “Democratic fascists prepare to drop the hammer” https://www.blackagendareport.com/democratic-fascists-prepare-drop-hammer

For this class, we focus specifically on the relationship between fascism and the U.S.’s racist police state. How has fascism functioned in the U.S., and how has the Empire contributed to its growth internationally? What were the forces operative behind the so-called Business Plot in 1934, a planned fascist seizure of state power, and what light does this shed on the present moment? What lessons can we as organizers learn from projects like the CIA’s Operation Gladio, which established an international network of Nazis and fascists, who committed acts of terrorism that were then blamed on communists? How does all of this history relate to the current state of American politics and the events of January 6, 2021? Class materials: George Seldes, Facts and fascism (New York: In Fact, 1943), 11-15; 68-79; 277-286. Gabriel Rockhill, “Fascist plots in the U.S.: Contemporary lessons from the 1934 “Business Plot” https://liberationschool.org/fascist-plots-in-the-u-s-contemporary-lessons-from-the-1934-business-plot/ Sarah Churchwell, “American fascism: It has happened here” https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/22/american-fascism-it-has-happened-here/

This class looks at some of the important communist responses to fascism and explores how communists have organized on the ground to fight and win against fascists. We begin with interwar Europe and international debates in communist party organizing but also discuss how Marxist-Leninists like the Black Panther Party understood fascism in the U.S. This provides us with some useful perspectives on various tactics, their relative successes and failures, and what this means for the present moment. Class materials: Clara Zetkin, “Resolution on fascism” (adopted on June 23, 1923 by the Third Enlarged Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International) https://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/06/fascism-report-comintern.htm Georgi Dimitrov, “Unity of the working class against fascism” https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1935/unity.htm The Black Panther, May 31, 1969 on “Fascism in America” https://www.marxists.org/history//usa/pubs/black-panther/03n06-may%2031%201969.pdf

The United States, a country with a $20 trillion economy, is waging a full-scale economic war against an island whose economy equals half of one percent of that — Cuba. The war has been going on for 60 years. It began shortly after the 1959 revolution to punish Cuba for taking control of corporations owned by rich capitalists in the United States who had brutally exploited the Cuban people for decades. Supporters of the Cuban revolution call this economic war a blockade, not an “embargo” like the corporate media. That is because the U.S. government is not only preventing its own citizens and businesses from trading with Cuba, it also prohibits trade with foreign entities that also do business with Cuba. In essence, the United States makes companies choose between doing business in the United States’ $20 trillion economy or in Cuba. Here are six ways that this cruel blockade profoundly impacts the lives of the Cuban people. Read the full article here: https://www.liberationnews.org/six-ways-the-cruel-u-s-blockade-makes-cubans-suffer/

Cuba, like every other country on the planet, is struggling with the impact of COVID-19. This small island of 11 million people has created five vaccine candidates and sent its medical workers through the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade to heal people around the world. Meanwhile, the United States hardens a cruel and illegal blockade of the island, a medieval siege that has been in place for six decades. In April 2020, seven United Nations special rapporteurs wrote an open letter to the United States government about the blockade. “In the pandemic emergency,” they wrote, “the lack of will of the US government to suspend sanctions may lead to a higher risk of such suffering in Cuba and other countries targeted by its sanctions.” The special rapporteurs noted the “risks to the right to life, health and other critical rights of the most vulnerable sections of the Cuban population.” Read the full article here: https://www.liberationnews.org/the-united-states-tries-to-take-advantage-of-the-price-cubans-are-paying-for-the-blockade-and-the-pandemic/ Reposted from People’s Dispatch. This article was produced by Globetrotter.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke to the Cuban people today — Sunday, July 11 — at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, after going to the site of one of several protests that took place in Cuba today. This unprecedented series of events are the result of the growing difficulties the people are experiencing by the double blow created by the increasingly severe U.S. blockade and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being in control of infections for many months, cases have been growing in recent weeks and days. Because the Cuban government is necessarily prioritizing medicines and health care for thousands of COVID-positive patients, shortages are being experienced by the rest of the population. Electrical energy is scarce because of the blockade, and what little is available is being directed to facilities for COVID patients. As a result, blackouts are happening in parts of the country, adding to the people’s difficulties. The United States is taking advantage of the situation by heavily financing counter-revolutionary groups that are part of the protests and trying to foment opposition. And yet, this is at a time when Cuba’s famed biotechnology industry has created five vaccines to vaccinate its population, the real hope for saving lives. This speech provides crucial context and information being covered up by the corporate media in the United States. We in the Party for Socialism and Liberation stand with the Cuban Revolution and the heroic people who have resisted U.S. imperialism for more than 60 years. Down with the U.S. blockade! The following is an unofficial translation of President Díaz-Canel’s words, from CubaDebate.cu Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/cuban-president-diaz-canel-revolutionaries-to-the-streets/

The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands in full solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, its government and people in the struggle against the latest sinister counter-revolutionary efforts of U.S. imperialism. The sixty year old blockade and hundreds of sanctions imposed under the Trump Administration have caused grave shortages of food, medicines, electricity and other necessities of life. The shortages have greatly exacerbated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the island. No working person in the United States should be fooled – this is the latest manifestation of an imperialist war to destroy Cuban independence and socialism. U.S. hands off Cuba! Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-u-s-imperialism-seeks-counter-revolution-in-cuba/

The notion that the rich are rich because they’re frugal, smart, entrepreneurial, and hardworking, and that the poor are poor because they’re wasteful, lazy, stupid, and irresponsible is widespread. This is the ideology of meritocracy: that success or failure in life is up to the individual’s choices. The ideology takes on different forms, such as the idea that Black liberation is achieved through “Black buying power,” as Jared Ball’s recent book puts it. Whatever form it takes, this ideology serves the purpose of blaming the poor for their poverty and the oppressed for their oppression. The capitalist system that produces both is totally absolved. What’s interesting is that although this notion is widely accepted, it is easily disproved. Who, after all, thinks Donald Trump gained his wealth by employing his intelligence? It’s obvious that his wealth has nothing to do with his own individual personality, characteristics or merits. On the other end, who doesn’t know smart and creative people—maybe even with advanced degrees—who are either working low-waged jobs or are unemployed? Marx was the first to discover and articulate the specific source of inequality under capitalism: surplus value. In a letter he wrote to Engels the year he published the first volume of Capital, Marx said that “the treatment of surplus-value regardless of its particular forms as profit, interest, ground rent, etc.” was one of the “best points” made in the book. But there are a few necessary steps to take before we can really grasp surplus value, which is the real motor of class struggle. Read the full article here: https://liberationschool.org/03-what-is-surplus-value-html/

Gentrification is the systematic process of displacing poor people from a community and replacing them with more affluent people, all in the interest of profit. It has become a primary local policy of the representatives of the ruling class and is clearly carried out by the state. While it is clearly a policy, it is also an outcome of the capitalist approach to housing and development. Profit is king. People’s livelihoods and well-being are not considerations. A serious socialist program for housing must unequivocally reject the idea that gentrification is a process caused primarily by an influx of white wealthier people and fancy coffee shops. They more serve as symbols that gentrification won. By the time wealthy people and coffee shops show up, the behind-the-scenes work for gentrification has already taken place. We should begin to correctly frame gentrification as a violent function of the capitalist model. A clear political alternative that can unify working-class people of all nationalities and keep housing affordable and safe for all is the answer. Read the full article here: https://www.breakingthechainsmag.org/not-just-rich-people-and-cafes-toward-a-socialist-understanding-of-gentrification/

In the early hours of July 7, Haitian president-turned-dictator Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his home in Port-au-Prince. While many details of the assassination remain unclear, the political vacuum in Haiti will likely result in a fierce struggle over the direction of the nation in the coming weeks. The Biden administration’s initial reactions to the assassination disturbingly indicate that the U.S. government is considering deepening their intervention in Haiti, which could possibly involve a military intervention. Biden’s official statement pledges that the United States “stand[s] ready to assist”. The spokesman for the State Department ominously said that the United States is “prepared to receive additional requests from Haitian authorities”. A new U.S. occupation of Haiti, or any type of meddling in the country’s sovereign affairs, would be a disaster. For over a century the U.S. military has helped corporations plunder Haiti, carrying out invasions, supporting coups and menacing anyone who fights for the freedom and independence of the country. Even if they use humanitarian language, the goal of any U.S. intervention remains the same. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/haiti-no-to-u-s-intervention-in-wake-of-jovenel-moise-assassination/