To: Detroit
Workers' Voice mailing list
November 18, 2016
RE: Seattle Communist Study Group leaflet against Trump
The racist, lying, anti-working class demagogue Donald Trump is now president-elect of the United States. Trump, who opposes the almost non-existent environmental protections we presently have. Trump, who has fomented fear and hatred of immigrants. Trump, who preaches contempt for women and wants to overthrow the right to abortion. Trump, who says wages are too high in this country. And Trump, who openly incited violence against Black Lives Matter and other progressive demonstrators during his campaign with calls to treat them "very, very rough," punch them in the face, and carry them out on stretchers.
So now we're seeing the first results of Trump's demagoguery: cowardly harassment and attacks on immigrants, minorities and women wearing hijabs, even in elementary schools. His government is going to mean reaction all along the line.
But with Trump's victory, Hillary Clinton was immediately saying "we owe him an open mind and the chance to lead," and liberal Obama was saying "we're actually all on one team" with Trump. A few days later, when asked about Trump appointing white supremacist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim Steven Bannon as his chief White House adviser, Obama weaseled, "it's not appropriate for me to comment on every appointment," and prattled on about a "smooth transition"...to Trumpism! And wedded to the Democrats, Richard Trumka offers the AFL-CIO's "congratulations to President-elect Trump," and says the AFL-CIO hopes to work with him.
The Democrats are acting this way because while they quibble with the Republicans over the refinements of mass exploitation and oppression, they're the other major party of the capitalists' team.
Over the past week and more, several hundred thousand people have filled the streets in indignant protests all over the country. More demonstrations are being planned everywhere, including for inauguration day, January 20, and a Million Women March for January 21.
It has been the young people who've stood out in these early protests, and there is no mystery why. Obama's "hope" and "change" turned out to be mass deportations, increasing police murders, fracking the environment, and bailing out the banks and auto capitalists on condition that the auto workers slave for less. Now Trump wants to take all that farther. It's a downward spiral to disaster after disaster.
But very large numbers of these young people are from the working class, and they're feeling their way toward working class politics. For example, forging working-class solidarity against the capitalists and Trump's coming anti-people offensive demands standing up against the special oppression of African Americans, immigrants and women. And what did we have at the November 9 anti-Trump march in Seattle? Along with everyone else, probably two thousand white youths militantly chanting "Black lives matter!" and raising slogans in defense of immigrants and women. Thus they were helping build working class solidarity. Without this class solidarity we're all dragged down, but with it we can build a powerful movement that fights with moral authority.
The Republican and Democratic parties are organized, and the police are organized. The Ku Klux Klan actively supports Trump (even organizing a victory parade for him in North Carolina) and millions of people listen to fascistic demagogue Alex Jones build support for Trump and his reactionary program on the radio.
Confronted with this, many new people are coming into political motion who want to get organized to fight back. Calls to form groups or join already-existing groups are being made all over. These calls should be taken up in the schools and workplaces. Find like-minded people to attend the immediate round of protests with, to discuss politics with, to push certain chants and slogans with. Find like-minded people who want to organize in the school or workplace or neighborhood, and who want to fight on the various fronts of the class struggle in the coming years.
Along with this there are calls for organizing a political party that truly represents the interests of the masses. We support this call too. But we don't think this can be a party that's centered on elections. It must first and foremost be centered on patiently helping develop the mass struggles of the workers and oppressed, and on patiently combining them into a revolutionary upsurge.
Join the demonstrations!
Black lives matter!
Defend immigrants and women!
Organize!
Seattle Communist Study Group
November 18, 2016
Contact us at seattle.com.sg@gmail.com!
[Above version
includes small corrections made soon after
the leaflet appeared on the DWV
list]
Separate items at the end
of the leaflet:
The youthful crowd at the November 9 Seattle demonstration applauded and cheered every time one of the speakers mentioned socialism. But what is real socialism? How does it view the world? How do we move forward the movement to achieve socialism? Reading lists on these issues are being propagated in some parts of the country, and these are some of our suggestions: Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto; Engels' Anti-Dühring and The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State; Lenin's The State and Revolution and What Is To Be Done? All can be read or ordered online.
We also must learn from the rich history of the revolutionaries organizing in this country. See, for example, http://communistvoice.org/00CPUSA.html and http://communistvoice.org/00BNQ.html.
More on the election of Trump: http://communistvoice.org/DWV-161114.html.
CV is a journal of revolutionary theory. It exposes the capitalist system, and also tackles controversies facing activists. It upholds real Marxism-Leninism, which has nothing in common with the false "communist" regimes like the former Soviet Union, or China and Cuba, or with Trotskyism, Stalinism or Maoism. For subscription info and to see articles visit: www.communistvoice.org. Email: mail@communistvoice.org. Or write: CV, Box 28536, Joyfield Sta., Detroit, MI 48228.
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Join with the Seattle Women March Against Hate -- Saturday, December 3, 1:00 pm at Volunteer Park Amphitheater, 1400 E Prospect Street. <>
[Above version of the leaflet includes small changes
made after it appeared on the DWV list]
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Posted on December 3, 2016
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