The class struggle’s path is becoming ever more perilous, yet we are gaining a greater sense of what the route to victory looks like. It looks like an effort to unify the American masses against the murderous and pedophilic class that’s destroying our economy, has forced us into another war, and is using death squads like ICE to wage an escalating campaign of terror.
Our government has become so brazen in its actions, and has decided not to care anymore about hiding its crimes, because this was the only way for the Epstein regime to go forward when it got exposed. The start of the ongoing Gaza genocide was the definitive moment in this transition, where our rulers “took the mask off” in a way that they hadn’t before. In response to those who refuse to stand for this assault against humanity, our government will unleash unrestrained violence. And the only way we can overcome this violence is through a popular coalition against the Epstein class, one that provides the mass counter-force which will be needed for overthrowing it.
Amid the American Communist Party’s taking the initiative in calling for an anti-Epstein coalition, I am reminded of the original U.S. Communist Party’s parallel project in the 1930s. This was the project to build a mass labor party, whose purpose William Z. Foster described as follows: “when the Communists raise the question of a labor party they do not think of an organization to compete with or to replace the Communist Party, but of a broad mass workers’ party, established on the basis of the united front between the Communists and all other workers, who accept the policy of the class struggle for their direct interests and who therefore break with the capitalist parties.” It’s this concept that communists will need to properly grasp if we’re going to fulfill our role in the popular struggle. If we want to take Marxism into the future, and make it relevant to the fight the masses have ahead of them, we must advance our goals within a coalition that includes all who share an interest in defeating Epstein’s accomplices.
Foster explained how backward it would be to view communist organizations as being in need of a top-down, commanding role within a broad mass struggle:
One of the surest means of defeating the labor party movement would be to build on the basis of Communist control as an imperative condition. That would surely strip the labor party, from the outset, of its character as a mass united-front organization. The labor party must be a real united front on the political field. The labor party must be based upon the broad-mass unions, while the Communists must stimulate the unions to link up with the movement for a mass-labor party. In the given conditions in the United States, a labor party will certainly take on a militant and radical aspect, and if our Communist Party acts energetically and intelligently (it can especially entrench itself in the lower organs of the labor party) it can acquire a very powerful and even leading influence in the new party.
Building a coalition on the basis of communist control would truly be anti-communist, as communism only embodies its purpose when it aids the class struggle. And a critical way for us to aid the struggle right now is by bringing together every ideological tendency that seeks justice for Epstein’s victims.
Among these tendencies are the factions within MAGA that have split off from Trump, and are looking for what comes next. While bringing in the disillusioned MAGA base—or any other popular element which has been betrayed after following a bourgeois political trend—we must progress the discourse beyond the framework from which these trends emerged. The core problem with American politics, in the form that it’s existed for a long time, is that it has no connection with the struggles of those who are fighting against the imperial hegemon. The old lines of communication with global liberation efforts, found within the revolutionary wing of trade unionism and the independent working-class organizations, were destroyed with the 20th century war against America’s genuine left. And this dismantling of international solidarity is a critical part of how the Epstein class has managed to hold on to power for so long.
In this phase, the predominant way that America’s people identify their class enemies is by looking for who’s part of the massive super-rich child trafficking network. The Democrat wing of the ruling class is trying to distance itself from this network by posturing as the source of accountability, but most people see through that wing’s hypocrisy. There’s also a large section of the masses who are class-conscious enough to recognize Brian Thompson as their enemy; and this will translate into many of them becoming working-class fighters when they’re presented with an org which can lead them in this way. Our task is to unify everybody who can at the minimum agree that Epstein’s accomplices must be brought to justice; while putting forth a program and a mode of practice that takes example from the global anti-imperialist struggles.
These two aspects of our mission are interdependent. Obviously we won’t be able to get anywhere if we only work with those who readily agree to a communist mode of operating; a coalition can only exist in the form of a real united front, in which no one participant tries to impose their agenda onto the others. And it’s when we understand this principle of mass work that we gain the skills to actually function as effective communists. To advance a mode of work, within our own part of the coalition, that brings the masses into a project of theoretically informed class struggle. This is how we break the cycle of bourgeois political deception that’s kept Americans from asserting their own interests for so long: build bridges with everybody who shares our goal of defeating the Epstein class, while offering a path towards overthrowing the system behind this class.
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