Against the backdrop of ICE terror, brewing economic crisis, and the most unpopular imperialist war in US history, 176 communists assembled for the Los Angeles Marxist School on October 10–11.
Comrades and guests from over a dozen cities across the West streamed into the City of Angels, including contingents from Los Angeles, San Diego, the Inland Empire, Ventura, Bakersfield, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento in California; Seattle, Portland, Olympia, and Bellingham in the Pacific Northwest; and Phoenix, Boise, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Tucson in the Mountain West. Joining them were guests from as far away as Philadelphia and New York.
It was the first in a series of three Marxist Schools the RCA is hosting this fall, which will continue in Chicago on October 24–25 and conclude in New York City on November 7–8.
Comrades and guests from over a dozen cities across the West streamed into the City of Angels, including contingents from San Diego, Seattle, and Phoenix. / Image: own work
The State and Revolution
In the weekend’s opening plenary, John Peterson, executive editor of The Communist, led off on Lenin’s The State and Revolution, a masterpiece of Marxism. Drawing on the ideas of Marx and Engels and the concrete experience of proletarian revolutions, Lenin explained that, in the final analysis, the state consists of “special bodies of armed men.” The state’s monopoly on violence ensures the ruling class’s ability to exploit the vast majority of society.
Recent struggles lent the discussion a particularly concrete character. Since Trump’s return to office, the naked force of the capitalist state has been on full display during the ICE offensives across the country, which sparked mass movements in California, Chicago, and Minneapolis–St. Paul.
As reformists sow fresh illusions in bourgeois democracy, it’s vital for communists to understand that the working class cannot take hold of the bourgeois state and use it for our own ends. The socialist transformation of society will require a revolutionary struggle against the existing regime and the construction of a workers’ state.
The state’s monopoly on violence ensures the ruling class’s ability to exploit the vast majority of society. / Image: own work
School of communism
Throughout the weekend, comrades participated in nine different sessions covering topics from history to economics to strategy and tactics.
Patrick Norman spoke on the 1919 Seattle General Strike, which saw workers shut the city down for four days. Like in Minneapolis earlier this year, a general strike poses the question of who runs society: the workers or the bosses. Whereas in 1919 the labor leadership called off the strike without achieving any of the workers’ aims, we’re training our members to lead workers in moments like these to challenge the ruling class’s right to rule.
In the session on historical materialism, Ethan Quinn challenged the bourgeois historians who consider history nothing more than a series of random dates, facts, and “great men.” While academics ridicule anyone who suggests human society operates according to laws, communists understand that there is a logic to history which we can comprehend by applying Marx’s dialectical-materialist method.
Throughout the weekend, comrades participated in nine different sessions covering topics from history to economics to strategy and tactics. / Image: own work
Martín Lazos discussed the Venezuelan Revolution, which starkly posed the question of reformism or revolution. With every step Hugo Chavez took to secure the country’s sovereignty and raise the masses’ living conditions, he came into bitter conflict with the parasitic oligarchs and US imperialists.
Venezuelan workers and peasants often took matters into their own hands, expropriating factories and farms, and even reversing a CIA-back coup through a mass uprising in April 2002. But, as the great French revolutionary Saint-Just warned, “Those who make half a revolution only dig their own graves.” The working class must sweep the entire capitalist system aside or else suffer counterrevolution. That’s the tragedy which has befallen the Venezuelans as their country has been transformed into a semicolony of the US.
Marxists aren’t merely concerned with politics and economics. As Marx’s favorite maxim puts it, “Nothing human is alien to me.” / Image: own work
Ramneet Manrai explained the communist position on immigration and how the ruling class deploys anti-immigrant divide-and-rule tactics to attack the wages and conditions of all workers. David Johnson tracked the rise of the CIO in the 1930s and the lessons from the labor struggles of 1944–46, the greatest strike wave in American history. Chase Birkeland explained how capitalism’s internal contradictions led to the 2008 financial crisis, which radicalized a whole generation.
Marxists aren’t merely concerned with politics and economics. As Marx’s favorite maxim puts it, “Nothing human is alien to me.” In his talk on “Music and the Class Struggle in America,” Josh Bennett laid out the history of music in the US, from the indigenous music of the Plains to early folk and blues, country, and modern jazz, unearthing the interrelations of politics, technology, and art.
Preparing for our own October
In the final session, Jake Thorp introduced a discussion on the greatest event in world history: the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the first time the working class overthrew capitalism and held onto power in the face of bourgeois counterrevolution.
The RCA has set itself the task of overthrowing capitalism in the US, and we must learn these lessons to prepare for our own October. / Image: own work
The twists and turns of the eight months from the February to the October Revolution provide communists with invaluable lessons for today. The RCA has set itself the task of overthrowing capitalism in the US, and we must learn these lessons to prepare for our own October.
We plan to do what has never been done in this country. Building a mass communist party for this historic struggle takes time and energy. It also demands our financial resources. During our communist fundraiser and raffle, we raised nearly $5,500.
We achieved this because our comrades firmly understand that our communist war chest funds the sharpest weapons we can wield in the class struggle: Marxist theory. Eager comrades swarmed the book stalls throughout the weekend. In total, they spent over $9,000 to arm themselves with these ideological weapons. That’s more than double the amount from last year’s event!
We plan to do what has never been done in this country. Building a mass communist party for this historic struggle takes time and energy. / Image: own work
In his closing remarks, John Peterson synthesized the weekend’s discussions. This school wasn’t merely an academic exercise. For us, Marxist ideas are a guide to action. John urged the comrades to bring these discussions into the party’s day-to-day work. The ideas also keep us grounded amidst the ebb and flow of party building. If we continue building upon the granite foundation of Marxism, there’s no reason we won’t succeed in preparing a force that will establish socialism in our lifetimes. We ended the weekend with rousing renditions of The Internationale and Bandiera Rossa.
Exactly one year ago, the inaugural Los Angeles Marxist School met as Gen Z revolutions swept across Nepal, Indonesia, and Madagascar. Today, mass movements have exploded in Spain and France, as European workers and youth face down austerity, war, and the threat of a worldwide recession. It’s only a matter of time until similar eruptions in the US. The RCA Marxist Schools will help American communists be ready for such events.