Nick B, Phoenix, AZ
While middle-class liberals were trying to reign in the 50501 protests around the country on President’s Day, a wide swath of attendees were turning to the Communists for answers.
Some 400 protesters gathered at the Arizona State Capitol building on February 17, but underlying the confused slogan of “No Kings on President’s Day” was a deeper class anger. Several times over, people would point to the outstretched back of The Communist #10 with Luigi Mangione’s perp walk, thinking it was another picket sign. When they learned it was our paper, however, they quickly started asking questions about how to get involved.
In the midst of the eclectic storm of liberals, anarchists, and reformists, many protesters were attracted to the RCA because we had a clear, class-independent program. One young woman drove three hours from Flagstaff to join the protest, saying that she was ready to consider communism since voting for the “lesser evil” had done no good.
Another woman at our table said that she was a federal employee, and she wanted to learn how she could fight back when she was inevitably laid off. And a third, who was there with her teenage daughter, had not only started reading Marx after Trump’s inauguration but asked if she could attend a communist cell meeting the same day (which she did).
In spite of the fact that the average age of this crowd had to be in the mid-40s, double that of February 5’s action, there was a hunger for ideas. The comrades sold ten issues of The Communist, two booklets, and one book, all for $85—and we made contact with eight potential recruits to the party! The political crisis in the US is affecting the consciousness of workers both young and old.