Greetings to the Second National Congress of the RCA

Dear comrades,

The Spartacist League/U.S. sends greetings to the Second National Congress of the RCA. As U.S. imperialism turns the screws on us all, we believe it is essential for the Marxist left to debate our perspectives and look to engage in united-front defense (as we did outside the Pakistani embassies in New York, Los Angeles, London and elsewhere in defense of your comrades in South Asia). In this spirit, we want to address your congress document, “Where Is America Going?”, which we read with interest. We agree that the most urgent problem of our time is cohering a revolutionary leadership rooted in the working class and that liberalism only leads to a dead end for the working masses.

But the whole question is what to do to concretely bring forward such a leadership. And this is where our fundamental difference lies. A revolutionary leadership will be built not by simply repeating red slogans and waving red flags, but by directly engaging in struggles with a clear understanding of the class forces at play and taking head-on the obstacles that hold those struggles back. In order to help strengthen the Marxist left’s ability to prepare the working class for all that is ahead and shape the course of events, we offer our criticisms for your consideration.

The World Situation

Your analysis of the world situation resembles ours in certain empirical observations. You rightly note that “the liberal-imperialist mask of the so-called ‘Western values,’ ‘defense of democracy,’ and the ‘inviolability of human rights and national borders’ have been unceremoniously dropped” and “US imperialism can no longer afford the smiling mask of hypocrisy.”

But while you recognize the obvious fact that the liberal world order is in tatters, when it comes to the consequences of this tectonic shift within the U.S., you explicitly deny that society has shifted to the right, offering: “What is really taking place is an almighty polarization in both directions, reflecting the widespread rejection of the status quo.” To prove this, you cite opinion polls and votes against abortion bans in order to deny that liberalism propelled the working class to the right. These votes are evidence of the many contradictions within the working class, but do not negate the overall rightward shift. As we noted in our own document, “Where Is the U.S. Going?” (WV No. 1183, 18 December 2024): “Many working people who went for Trump out of legitimate anger believe that protectionism, mass deportations and Trump’s strongman approach will advance their interests.”

The task of communists is to tap into the vast reservoir of anger, and its many contradictions, and give it a working-class expression, turning it against Trump and the liberals. Instead, you attribute to the working class a far higher consciousness than it has—which can only be disorienting. The same goes for your proclamation that the main task today is to “prepare for revolution!” You insist on this in a period when the working class is not only on the defensive, but also more separated from the left than ever. The reason for this separation was the left’s refusal to offer an alternative to liberalism in the post-Soviet period—making them indistinguishable in the eyes of the working class from the hated liberals, who made their lives a living hell while berating them for being backward.

The logic of your position is that there is no need for revolutionaries to intervene into and guide the struggles of the workers and oppressed because, after all, everyone is becoming a communist. All this leaves you with no road to the masses. U.S. imperialism is on a rampage, hell-bent on shoring up its slipping global position. In the face of worsening genocide in Gaza, all the repression against pro-Palestine activists, ramped-up deportations and racist cop terror, union-busting of federal workers and declining standard of living for the class as a whole, you proclaim that today’s “class balance of forces is overwhelmingly in favor of the workers.”! We beseech you, comrades, to wake up before it is too late! The order of the day is preparing defensive struggle, not offensive! Denying this will only lead to disaster.

Get into the Labor Movement

Your document correctly notes the spineless antics of the trade-union bureaucracy in response to Trump’s tariffs and the attacks on government workers. Yes, Fain and O’Brien identify the interests of the working class with the capitalist class, and their tactics flow from their pro-imperialist strategy. But as for what union militants should do now, you offer nothing but the pronouncement that "Eventually, the current crop of labor leaders will be pushed toward class independence or pushed out altogether—the workers will have no alternative.” This is a recipe for trying to pressure these labor traitors to the left or waiting for the working-class to conclude it needs communism–both of which leave the bureaucrats in command and does nothing to aid today’s union struggles.

You cannot pressure the union bureaucrats to cease seeking a partnership with the bosses–this is their political program! Holding out this hope can only demoralize the working class, breed anti-union attitudes, and smear the name of communism by giving “progressive” and not-so “progressive” union officials a left cover. Even in the most limited struggles, communists fight to advance the unity, consciousness and organization of the class. This cannot be done simply by criticizing the methods of the union leadership without seeking to build a new leadership based on a revolutionary strategy.

You have recruited hundreds of youth who see themselves as communists? Good! You should have them get industrial jobs and help push union struggles forward. The working class does not spontaneously develop communist consciousness, as Lenin explains at length in What Is to Be Done? It must be brought to the working class from the outside. Neither passivity in the face of the massive shocks hitting the working class nor hopes that the current crop of trade-union tops will see the light will win the working class to communism. Nor will they do anything to bridge the massive gulf currently existing between the working class and the left. To do that, the left must go to the working class and provide answers on what to do. The only way to truly increase the influence of revolutionary ideas is to work in the unions and show how they are essential to advancing workers struggle. The argument that you are too small to do this is just an excuse for your refusal to build an opposition to the labor bureaucracy.

Fight for Black Liberation, Key to American Revolution

While you recognize the hypocritical and pernicious role of liberalism, your document neither effectively answers the advocates of identity politics nor provides any way to break down the racial divisions the bourgeoisie uses to divide and defeat working-class struggle. You write: “Lip service to the concrete problems of everyday life is not enough. For example, DEI policies at corporations like Target have done nothing to address the systemic racism that gave rise to the historic George Floyd movement.” Yet you yourselves provide no counter to liberalism other than abstractly calling for “class unity.” What you never say is that workers have a vested interest in actively fighting against racial oppression. Ignoring this and simply talking about the common interests of all workers, etc., means keeping in place the racial divisions that must be overcome to unite the class and further its struggles today.

During the UAW strike, we motivated to auto workers that winning their demands was going to take a completely different strategy from that of Fain’s, one that connected their struggle to the fight for black liberation. Black people are forcibly segregated at the bottom of society not because of the prevalence of racist ideas, but because this is a powerful tool for the capitalist rulers to drive down the living standards of the working class, pit workers against each other for a shrinking pool of jobs, housing and education and stabilize capitalist class rule. White workers can’t liberate themselves without fighting for black liberation; and conversely, because black oppression exists to maintain capitalism in the U.S., black people can’t liberate themselves without fighting to smash capitalism.

Toward the end of your document, you note that “Five years have passed since the George Floyd movement shook the world. Had the RCA been present nationwide in sufficient quantity and quality, we could have given that raw explosion of anger a clear class expression and focus.” But that movement was not simply a raw explosion of anger, but a liberal one for cop reform. What was needed was to split it from the liberals who led it to defeat. The fundamental problem of the RCA’s predecessors at the time, like ourselves and the rest of the left, wasn’t your size but your tailing of BLM liberalism. You go on to note: “Since then, there have been no movements or strikes even approximating that scale. But the pressures of life under capitalism are intractable, and eventually, we will face a tsunami of class struggle—this is the perspective we must prepare for.” But why, when police brutality is more rampant than ever and the working class is in desperate need of relief, would you just sit around waiting?

Anyway, as you recognize, the liberals have washed their hands of the matter. It has fallen to the left to reignite the movement—not on liberal grounds, but rather on the basis of the unity of interests of the working class and black people against the ruling class and its repressive state apparatus. That is why we launched the “Open All Police Archives” campaign. You call to “fight Trump and the liberals”—cool. But how are you going to actually do it? Crucial to this campaign is the exposure in action of the liberals, who claim to be on the side of black people but when push comes to shove, show themselves to be on the side of state secrecy. We seriously encourage you to join us in this united-front campaign to rebuild the movement against cop terror.

Conclusion

We hope that RCA comrades will consider our criticisms and respond in the interests of political clarification and putting the Marxist left on a firmer foundation. Having a wrong understanding of unfolding events and current consciousness can only lead to setting wrong tasks. It is essential that, as the U.S. imperialists strike at the working class and the oppressed, Marxists have answers for how to come out on the other side of this crisis intact with minimal damage.