The Internet “versus” Real Life

How separate is online discourse from real political impact?

I am, for all intents and purposes, “not online,” and never have been. I don't have Twitter, BlueSky, TikTok, Facebook, what have you. I don't watch YouTube. I technically have an Instagram, which I log into maybe once every few months to check times and dates for art markets, because for some reason we've relegated local event planning and organization to a site that requires an account. Probably shocking no-one, I'm also abysmal at texting back.

One would presume I'm the exact kind of person who says things like “I'm not chronically online enough for this,” or “who cares about online discourse,” but I'm very much the opposite. I believe it matters a great deal and that it is an egregious mistake to overlook the importance of online influence on politics and public opinion.

According to Pew Research, 84% of Americans watch YouTube, 71% use Facebook, and half use Instagram. 64% of children aged 8-12 regularly use YouTube and TikTok, a vulnerable age for them in terms of absorbing ideas about the world. The University of Maine found that about 60% of the world's population uses social media and that the average person spends roughly 2.5 hours per day (nearly a month per year) on social media. Over half of Americans get their news from social media. When the overwhelming majority of Americans engage with social media for both entertainment and news on such a regular basis, how could this not impact our everyday lives or influence mainstream viewpoints?

Overwhelmingly, more and more research is being conducted about the impact of social media on different aspects of our lives. The Oxford Internet Institute states that “social media manipulation of public opinion is a growing threat to democracies around the world,” after finding that $10 million was spent on political advertisements and that 93% of countries had political actors engaging in disinformation. This is to say nothing of issues like YouTube algorithm's alt-right pipeline or of issues like dog whistles being turned into memes a la “reject modernity, embrace tradition,” among others. Turning Point USA began with a speech at Benedictine University, which has a student body of about 3,000 students. Their social media following, on the other hand, had over 10 million. In 2025, influencers were paid to the tune of $8k each to shill for the Democrats. We are increasingly seeing a monopoly of social media ownership, in combination with billionaire ownership of news outlets, thereby enacting further control of the types of information available on these platforms. 

Beyond propaganda, 54 countries have imposed internet blackouts during political unrest and are increasingly criminalizing, barring, and scanning for certain political opinions on social media. Many bills have been introduced attempting to regulate content on the internet, whether they do or do not succeed. North Dakota, Texas, and Florida introduced bills barring furries from public schools, with more politicians in states like Colorado and Tennessee discussing the topic. On the surface, this is a ridiculous head scratcher. Why is this even an issue that anyone needs to legislate over? The source is an internet rumor that public schools were putting litter boxes in bathrooms for students who “identify as animals,”--not-so-ridiculously a satire regarding trans people and bathroom usage. Since this debacle, Texas and Florida successfully passed anti-trans bathroom bills despite these bills failing in previous legislative sessions.

For better or worse, we live in a time where most people we engage with in real life have and actively use social media. A time where people are inundated multiple hours a day with propaganda, disinformation, dog whistles, influencers, and more. We are, factually, seeing the internet impact proposed bills and policy changes and *be* impacted by legislation. We are seeing journalism be throttled by corporate ownership and the monopolization and surveillance of social media as a whole. And it is clear that multiple systems of government recognize the internet as both a potential threat to control and a means through which to enact control. 

To be clear, I am not advocating for one to sit and spend a full work shift in 300 comment threads, endless video stitches, and video essay responses with people hailing from niche internet subcultures obsessed with using 4chan terminology and who are clearly not engaging with the desire for open communication. I am saying that the internet *is* the “real world” insofar as these are real life people you go to work with, people you see on the streets, children in your community. Rolling our eyes at and ignoring these issues because they're “just online,” sets us up catastrophically for allowing these small pockets of the internet to fester into a larger problem down the road. It is increasingly important to spend time and effort improving our community's literacy levels so that they can identify when they are being persuaded and what they are being persuaded into: literacy is not just about being able to read the words on the page but the ability to analyze, to connect ideas to existing bodies of information available to you, and evaluate this information. And it is increasingly important for us to honestly engage in conversations in productive ways.

Red Help ATX stands in full solidarity with the Prairieland Nine defendants in their fight against repression from the county, state, and federal government. 

The United States of America was founded on stolen land, and built on kidnapping, enslavement, and genocide. This government has always prosecuted, imprisoned, and killed those brave enough to take a stand against its barbarism. The case of the Prairieland Nine is another escalation of this judicial violence. The Black Panther Party was infiltrated, and their leadership murdered. COINTELPRO destroyed the Weather Underground. The original Black Lives Matter organizers were found dead in their cars. The Atlanta Forest Defenders were charged with domestic terrorism. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist at Columbia University, was accused of leading pro-Hamas actions. Now, anti-ICE protesters in Prairieland, Texas have been convicted of terrorism. 

This conviction has set a new and terrifying standard for cracking down on the right to assemble and protest. The fact that these comrades used a group chat and wore all black to a protest was used to prove they were members of an “ANTIFA cell.” One comrade had anarchist zines in their car, and others were carrying fireworks in their personal bags. None of these things are technically illegal, and yet they were convicted of providing material support to terrorists, rioting, and carrying explosives.

Most of us have done one or all of these things. 

We must learn from these comrades, and change our tactics. We must continue to stand in complete solidarity with everyone facing repression at the hands of an unjust settler state. Anarchists, Maoists, Marxists of all stripes, and any anti-fascist willing to put their body on the line to defend others is a comrade of ours. 

Free the Prairieland Nine. 

Free Palestine.

Hands off Cuba.

No War but Class War. 

Today, the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the President of the United States and his cabinet, told the American people not to believe their eyes. This is not the first time

this has happened, and if we don’t take serious action, it won’t be the last. Four blocks from where a widowed mother of three was murdered in cold blood, a man named George Floyd had the life choked out of him by the knee of a known white supremacist. When that happened, just a little over five years ago, the city of Minneapolis, and cities all over the country, erupted in the streets to protest and express their rage. During this time, the Democrats in power spent days apologizing for the actions of their storm troopers, but they followed that up with months of pushing a narrative of needing more money and training for all forms of law enforcement in the US, not the abolition of the institution as it exists today. The righteously indignant liberals quietly went back to work, spread ice cream memes, and pretended that everything was going to be okay. It wasn’t.

The American people only show their anger when there’s undeniable murder in play, and are all too willing to go back to “normal” whenever they are told that they’ve been given enough time to rage, mourn, protest, what have you. Then, law enforcement thanks these liberals for not destroying property and listening to their orders. This, if you ever needed one, is a clear sign that your protest did not have any real effect on anything or anyone. So, what is to be done? Start by reading that exact work, by Vladimir Lenin. Follow that up with Ho Chi Minh, Mao, George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, and other revolutionaries that really went out there and tried to make the change they wanted to see.

We have to wake up and realize that there is no “back to normal” for a vast majority of people in this country. Whether you’re poor and living on the streets, of a color that attracts police brutality, are a woman that attracts the worst kind of violence, or a single mother of three, there’s a good chance your world is fucked and isn’t likely to get unfucked any time soon by going “back to normal”. It is beyond time for change. What change you ask? I’m glad you did. Let’s talk in broad strokes.

First, remove all elected officials and anyone connected to the current government in power. Remove high ranking officials of all stripes and hold them accountable for the many crimes they’ve likely committed. This will be done in tandem with the abolition of the police, military and all other tools of oppression that were once controlled by the now toppled government. Take back all privately owned land and business and return it to the people, see Mao for my personal favourite methods.

Before we can do this, however, we have to organize. We have to come to terms with the fact that everything from our jobs to our institutions are a complete scam being run by an elite that only wants your surplus labor value and that of your future generations of offspring. Organize at work and show the capitalists you’re awake. Take those organizations and start forming militias of well educated and well trained people ready to take the power back. Then, follow the previous paragraph, using guidance from Che Guevara, George Jackson, and other revolutionaries who have been in the shit.

Stop going back to work, pretending like things will be okay. They won’t, not if we don’t do something.

The criticism is valid. Over-intellectualization, especially when we talk about liberation struggles, is indeed a symptom of being too far away from what people in our communities are experiencing. It should be uncontroversial to state that distance from the people and subsequent unfamiliarity with their material conditions disqualifies a person or organization from claiming that they are revolutionary.

The criticism simultaneously provides the fix for the tendency to make struggle appear like it is something very abstract and helplessly complicated: To be closer to what people in our communities are experiencing. It is part of why mutual aid is so very important.

With that understanding, I’ll cite Hồ Chí Minh: “To educate the masses, we must learn from them. To lead the masses, we must first serve them.”

The only way to have any idea what we are doing, and thus have the capability to begin to promote revolutionary ends, is to share company with people. And the only way we can trust each other or worthily gain the trust of people is in their service. With no adequately organized opposition to escalated repression and state violence within the state that currently wields the most imperialist power, the USA, the most oppressed and vulnerable people are exposed. The learning process for revolutionaries described by Hồ Chí Minh is necessarily practical. It must begin in service to said vulnerable masses.

“Isn’t the work of mutual aid groups just drops in a bucket?” is not an uncommon sentiment expressed by those who are skeptical about the efficacy of mutual aid work. It is based on a very short-term perspective.

Drawing further from Uncle Hồ, as he came to be known by his people, in a speech he gave at The National Congress of Mutual Aid Teams in 1955 (Ho Chi Minh Selected Works Volume IV, pages 81-87), specifically outlining a “method of organization” for mutual aid groups (modified punctuation; italics retained):

“Firstly, we should refrain from the desire to do quickly and tempestuously. Better to do little but surely than to do much, tempestuously but not surely. We should make firm but steady steps, and go forward gradually.

“Secondly, we should be realistic. The organization is intended for practical work. Its aim is not to have a name without practical content.

“Thirdly, we should organize mutual aid teams, from small ones, from 5-7 families to 9-10 families, to big ones. The teams should not be too big; otherwise their management will be difficult, the organization will get loose and easily exposed to failure.

“There are some other points which deserve our attention: experiences should be drawn to develop successes and to avoid failure...”

If we look to the Vietnamese revolution for guidance, it is so important to remember what revolutionaries in Vietnam have always stressed, that their publications and works must be contextualized to their own situation. Even so, I believe these general ideas are especially instructive and adhere to thought guided by dialectical materialism.

We see purpose in working with people who face the grinding violence of capitalism to the point that they are unhoused, or close to it, even on a small scale, those who confront the ruthless bureaucracy of the US immigration system, and those whose existence is propped up as a threat, namely trans people. Those we’re fortunate enough to meet are important. Though small in scale, we know aiding them in seeking better life conditions is an end of its own, a good use of time and resources.

It is also the best use of our time and resources because it develops us from privileged people and working class to relevant as proletarians. The practical knowledge we gain and the love we begin to feel for people dwarfs any claims to fitness for leadership that the bourgeois Democratic party may have. It also creates a basis for unity and the formation of a vanguard. To further paraphrase Uncle Hồ, we find our greatest strength in unity. And that real, practical unity contrasts with what the liberals are selling, an idealistic one that demands a willingness to disregard those who are most downtrodden by capitalism and imperialism.

There are reasons to be optimistic: Mutual aid groups are numerous in nearly every region of the USA. They do not all espouse revolutionary aims. But what many of them do have in common is practical knowledge and demonstrated desires to serve the people, which, supplemented with revolutionary education based on past successes, is a solid foundation for unifed struggle. More pertinent to the situation in the USA, many are seeing wisdom in the theoretical developments of the Black Panther Party, which, like the Vietnamese revolutionaries, drew guidance from Leninist teachings. They were incredibly successful, which is why the fascists bore down on them with such ruthless violence.

If you have a mind for confronting behemoth systems of inequality and oppression, for revolution, begin to educate yourself as revolutionaries before you have suggested. Discover, indisputably, where praxis meets joy. Base your organization’s capacity for leadership on the sincere and durable validity that the people of your communities will bestow if the work you do is worthy of it.

Check out my comrade Travis’ article on what lessons we’re already learning: HERE

Wage earners need not be informed of their exploitation, but they must learn the nature of it. Where does this exploitation begin and by whose hands must it end? Within Imperial core countries, the revolutionary potential of the working class has been subverted by the exploiting capitalist class, in part, through the vehicle of consumerism. The primary stage of the revolution, development of class consciousness among the masses, has yet to come about partially due to this subversion. Identitarian politics coupled with identitarian consumption commodifies the way in which we interact, obfuscating latent potential for class solidarity. The city-dwelling working class has differing material interests than the rural working class, but the nature of their exploitation is the same - Monopoly capital. Their distinct material conditions combined with a two party system tends to produce two distinct, yet equally reactionary tendencies - liberalism and conservatism. Both parties bow to the altar of capital. Both parties are imperialist. 

The barrier to real working class unity becomes apparent when analyzing one’s own perceived identity as it relates to access to consumption. Does the way you dress, eat, live, and spend determine who you are? Does it communicate who you are to others? How can we foster a community that transcends these societal limitations?

Access to goods and services in American society is often confused for self expression. Put another way, self expression under capitalism is necessarily dependent on one's access to goods and services. Self-expression itself has become packaged and sold to the working class to their detriment. This commodification of self has fractured the working class into subsets seemingly devoid of class consciousness. The working class identity itself has become atomized, and in its place, aspirational, reactionary neoliberal, and consumerist identities have become the norm. 

Workers with the advantage of generational wealth, high earning workers, workers with good credit, and college educated workers all have greater access to personal wealth accumulation than poor workers, rural workers, and peasants. This access itself can be a barrier to class solidarity, and the individual sense of security outweighs the underlying need for social revolution. The highest wage earners and those with generational wealth have their basic needs met while also having more access to credit, traveling, luxury goods, wealth accumulation, and expensive experiences, further separating them from their working class interests. This access to consumption itself drives a wedge between high and low wage earners by implying a class distinction where none exists. The lack of class consciousness leads some of these workers to petit bourgeois aspirations. These are still working class individuals, albeit in an elevated position. Revolutionary potential among this subset, while low, can be materially beneficial to the revolution once realized.

Under empire, those without generational wealth must resort to the credit system, giving more and more of their hard earned money back to the banks. While they have more access to home ownership, they won’t actually purchase the home from the bank for 30 years. For example; a mortgage for $220K today at 6% means at maturity the buyer will have paid $474K in total. 115% OVER the asking price.  At every turn, the capitalist system is designed to predate on and take advantage of our desire for security for the benefit of those who own the capital. This process itself extinguishes community and trades it out for individuality, each picket fence representing another barrier to solidarity. The atomization of society is a crucial component in the deradicalization of a society. Revolutionary potential is lower among the “middle class” due to their adherence to the status quo for the sake of individual perceived security. 

Poverty in rural communities means lower access to goods and poor living conditions. Poverty in the city means payday loans, pawn shops, and food bank lines. When the impoverished lose everything, they are relegated to surviving on the streets. Those on the streets are dehumanized and routinely incarcerated. Helping the houseless builds community and solidarity. Taking care of the material needs of the most oppressed in society and building a revolutionary movement are not mutually exclusive.

Mao regarded the peasantry as having the most revolutionary potential, and his analysis proved correct through the Chinese Revolution. But we do not live in feudal China. We require a contemporary analysis of our material conditions and the current contradictions in order to build a cohesive movement with staying power. CTRRG published An Overview of the Movement in its Current State, which provides a lucid analysis of the revolutionary movement more broadly and provides an answer to the question of the next steps forward: an All-Empire Workers League.

“In order to develop revolutionary consciousness, we must learn how revolutionary consciousness can be raised to the highest point by stimuli from the vanguard elements. We recognize and appreciate the decades of hard, sometimes dangerous work done in the name of revolution by the older socialist parties. Perhaps we wouldn’t exist at all were it not for their efforts. It is our sincere wish to operate in complete harmony with these older groups. But we must create new impetus and greater intellectual and physical energy if the forces of reaction are not to win another extended reprieve.”

-George Jackson (1972) Blood in my Eye

The struggles experienced by each subset of the working class vary, but the source of their struggle remains the same: monopoly capitalism and imperialism. The focus must shift from simply the aesthetic differences to the material similarities of our precarity and those who create it for any semblance of class solidarity to become a reality. The path forward lies in the eventual development of a truly revolutionary, decolonial Communist Party, built upon revolutionary theory from all parts of the world, which can unite all oppressed peoples in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. The primary stage of revolution is yet to be achieved in the United States, but the opportunity grows each time the contradictions become more and more insoluble. Join an existing organization, start a reading group, or get involved with a mutual aid group in your community. You have nothing to lose but your chains! 

RedHelpATX is a revolutionary mutual aid group dedicated to feeding the houseless, strengthening networks of community defense, and furthering the science of Marxism-Leninism. Donate if you can!  Your financial support goes directly toward assisting the houseless community in Austin. 

While this may not come as a surprise, the impressions given when first meeting new folks sets the tone of the work we do. It’s a given, but being friendly, approachable, and further—being normal—helps to ground myself while building community. It can be easy to be detached from reality when the only engagement with others, comrades and working-class people alike, is done through online means. Internet brain-rot can obscure the reality that exists offline. In other words—touch grass. Marxism is a science that requires applied practice, we can’t develop our movement without applied practice. 

Further, it’s important to come to terms with the material circumstances of the people who need support the most.  We are all brought under the banner of the proletariat, some just experience the brutality of capitalism more acutely than others. This also expands more broadly to how I see myself taking part in the educate, agitate, and organize pipeline. 

As someone who is younger, I’m relatively new to our cause. That being said, there are a lot of people online like me who have very little, if no experience whatsoever in the latter parts of that pipeline. It’s now obvious to me that were I in need of aid, I wouldn’t want to be proselytized to about the intricacies of the reserve army of labor as a mechanism utilized by the ruling class to dissuade worker agitation. Again, being normal and understanding that the vast majority of society, regardless of what country you come from, wants a roof over their head, food on their table, and to work for an honest living. It will make me come off way more approachable than rambling about theory—that can come later. We are communists in the work we do, but a person struggling to survive needs to eat today.

I found it’s important to show people who are in need of help that I care more about their safety and survival than I do luring them into a cult. If somebody asks, I’ll be more than happy to guide them along the path of radicalization, but not without helping them first.

Being friendly is great and all, but there’s much more that can be done with regards to direct assistance. This is where I found listening to the struggles of the people we help can inform our goals and strategies going forward. For example, one of the folks we met during our aid drops brought up publicly accessible restrooms. Another mentioned that a fountain to get clean drinkable water would go a long way to help. These are baseline amenities that the government should be providing for all people, but the funding necessary for these gets redirected to areas that attract financial investment. For us, these are ways to directly address genuine issues people are suffering from. While we are not yet at the stage of providing alternative solutions, these are problems we can address in our own capacity. 

I must also bring up moral authority here, where a great deal of condescension arises from. As a tendency found in the liberal wing of the ruling class, moral authority works to alienate rather than address the concerns of the community. It is one of the many ways in which the anti-materialist nature of liberalism rears its head. This tendency leads to telling people what would be best for them as a way to assert superiority. Listening to concerns is how we arm ourselves with the material understanding of their conditions. 

Further on this point, alienation experienced by all workers is heightened for the lumpenproletariat. The United States has historically created laws enforced by the arms of the public force in an outwardly hostile manner towards this societal order, as is with other marginalized groups. To the houseless, for example, the state acts in a qualitatively different way than how it acts towards the housed. Not just a liberal fronting operation with fascistic tendencies, but a fascist fronting operation with fascistic tendencies. Just look at the Supreme Courts’ overturning Grants Pass v. Johnson in June of this year that criminalized the unhoused for sleeping in public spaces that are ‘off-limits’ by the standards of the state. We’re already aware that houselessness has long been made illegal, but this ruling further exacerbates the problem. Destitution under capitalism—especially experienced by those without shelter—is incredibly traumatic. 

What I’ve learned from our mutual aid work is to give agency whenever possible while working with our local community. This is because the systems of oppression that require a reserve army of labor to exist erodes most remaining capabilities of an individual to such a degree that they no longer feel as though they have control in their life. A lack of proper healthcare forcing people to self-medicate, employers refusing to hire based on purposefully unfavorable criteria, and now choice of where one can even sleep all proliferate this erosion. Our efforts are ways in which we can relieve, even if temporarily, the boot of consistent alienation.  

With this work, as is all mutual aid, what I’ve learned can be applied to all forms of community building that aren’t just reserved for those most primed for radicalization. To me, red mutual aid is at the core of building dual-power structures. While what I’ve done in Red Help ATX is nowhere near the level of community building efforts of past groups like the Black Panther Party, I work within my capacity to push our group's cause. At the end of the day, one step forward is still a valuable step. As far as I can tell, mutual aid will continue to be a high priority in our organizing group, as it is one of many ways in which we engage in collective action to further the revolutionary cause.

helm. This is the first debate between these two since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race following the previous debate with Trump. This is also, as CNN repeated ad nauseam, this was their first in person meeting ever. Harris confidently approached Trump and introduced herself to which he responded, “have fun”. Off to an amazing start with these two already. 

Right out of the gate Harris stated that she understands the middle class and has a plan to cut taxes for them, versus Trump who wants to continue lowering taxes for the rich. There was also mention of a “second mom” from Kamala when attempting to relate to a small business owner. This appears to be in reference to a woman, Regina Shelton, who ran a nursery school below the apartment Harris grew up in. Not a bad open, appealing to the gullible masses looking for platitudes over policy. Without hesitation, Trump started talking about tariffs, and how when he was president he made other countries “pay their fair share”, not Americans. The headshaking and smirking from Harris has begun, it truly is her best quality as a candidate. 

It doesn’t take long for us to jump right into the border, with Trump accusing Harris, “border czar”, of allowing illegal immigrants to take jobs, Black jobs, and hurting unions. Sloppy, but the point will resonate with his base. These people need an enemy, and immigrants are a classic for them to fall back on. Harris comes back sharply with, “Trump left us with record unemployment and a deadly virus”. Ok, let’s take a moment here. This is shameful rhetoric that is doing no one any good. Donald Trump didn’t cause the pandemic, and his administration did no worse, and in some ways better, handling it than the current administration being run by Harris and Biden. Alas, this is again likely appealing to her base, who are equally looking for an enemy, but more interested in targeting their opponents with nonsense instead of the real threats they pose. This is because they’re all part of the same camp, and to expose anything really material would be to expose themselves. I digress.

Harris takes little time bringing up the specter of Project 2025 and the evils Trump will bring with it. Let’s take a moment to talk about Project 2025 and the fear it instills in liberals. Project 2025 is a plan for a more conservative USA under the hand of the religious right and their political proxies. Whilst this should be something people are watching, working against, and so on, it is also not some new threat emerging from Donald Trump’s potential second term. This is nothing more than the longstanding religious right’s intentions for this country, just more organized and with a powerful group of neo-cons at the helm. Trump has also, wisely, denied being in any way affiliated with it. This is a waste of time and a distraction that both sides are happy to have in play. 

Trump followed up, as expected, by denying his involvement with Project 2025 and said that before the pandemic they had a “great economy” but after that they could only do so much. Kamala and Trump exchange empty jabs about their economic successes/failures, with Harris repeating over and over that she has a plan and Trump doesn’t. Trump, not as sharply as one might expect from him, replies “she copied Biden’s plan. It’s like four sentences, ‘run spot run’.” Not his best, he’s a bit sluggish up there, just not the old Don we’re used to.

At this point I’m fairly impressed by the moderators. They are both doing a pretty good job trying to keep the candidates on topic and ask relatively important questions. Trump, leaning into the economy, says Harris should have stopped the China tariffs if she doesn’t like them, but they’re still in place almost four years later. With China mentioned, it doesn’t take long for some fear mongering, with Harris accusing Trump of “selling us out” selling chips to China, and that he thanked President Xi and lied claiming President Xi wasn’t transparent with the US when Covid struck the globe. This anti-China rhetoric is incredibly transparent and dangerous. Enough is enough. Alas, the people need an enemy and China and Russia are the evil “other” du jour. 

Here, folks, is my favorite moment of the evening. Donald Trump, straightfaced and angrily shouts “she’s a Marxist, everyone knows her father is a Marxist professor”! Read that again. I have to say, as a Marxist, it’s both nice and crazy to hear Karl mentioned in a presidential debate in this capitalist hellscape. I am happy to report that from here the debate shifts into gear and gets fun.

Our moderators bring up the topic of reproductive rights, and without hesitation Trump claims he’s the most pro-life president ever. From there he starts ranting about ninth month abortions, and accusing Virginia of after-birth abortions saying, “Execute the baby”. The moderator is able to follow up with a fact check that there’s nowhere in the United States where babies are killed after nine months or birth.

Harris, in true Democrat fashion, says “If elected I will sign Roe v. Wade into law”. This is just the latest in a long running trend of Democrats using abortion as an election tool. It’s disgusting, and people have got to see that. These people have had 52 years, with plenty of control of our governing bodies, to make that happen. They don’t want to, because with control of our reproductive rights they lose something to hold over us and make us fear the repercussions of not voting for their candidates. 

Trump, in keeping with Republican ideals of small government, is not in favor of a national abortion ban, and insists states make those decisions. When asked about discussing the topic with his Vice Presidential running mate JD Vance, Trump denies ever speaking to Vance about a national abortion ban or anything of the like. He follows that up with “I’m a leader in IVF” in response to Harris telling a heart breaking anecdote about a woman unable to have children due to these bans on reproductive healthcare. At this point the microphone muting has ceased and they’re yelling over each other. This is what I stayed up for. 

Time to run for the border. Harris is hit with the fact that more immigrants have come across the border illegally under Biden than ever before. Harris wastes no time promoting a bill that would increase border control budgets and personnel, something nobody should be happy about. This is the same party that built the cages at the border, and Trump makes sure to remind us. Honestly, this exchange is at least an example of both parties being evil and out only for themselves. Pay attention to these types of arguments and notice how closely aligned these supposed polar opposite parties actually are.

We quickly move from substance to nonsense with Harris taking a jab at Trump, stating his rallies are boring and that people leave early because he’s rambling about Hannibal Lector and other things. Trump, a manchild, replies, “People don’t leave my rallies. They want to take our country back”. I’m sure the people on both sides ate this up. This, luckily, doesn’t last long, but where it goes is less than ideal. 

Trump launches into the recent racism oozing out of Springfield, Ohio. According to some white people that were offered a chance to be on TV, Haitian immigrants are ruining their lives in a multitude of ways. The most dehumanizing being that they’re stealing peoples pets (cats, etc) and eating them. This is a tired tactic, one I remember from my childhood being used to dehumanize Chinese immigrants and their restaurant food. After shouting that under Harris , “we’ll end up being Venezuela, or worse”, Trump is confronted again by the facts by way of the handsome moderator. The city manager of Springfield, and all officials asked, have denied any reports of Haitian immigrants stealing and eating cats, but Trump was quick to angrily reply that he “saw it on TV”. Full grandpa mode activated.

Grandpa Donald then begins to yell about how he fired people in his administration because he’s tough and that Harris wouldn’t because she wants to avoid people writing books about her. Wild stuff here folks, but we’re just getting into it. He then turns to crime again shouting about Venezuela having lower crim because they’re “sending them to her and here and it’s ruining the fabric of our country”. This is the stuff, and like that it’s time for a new slogan for Don. “We have a new kind of crime, it’s called ‘Migrant Crime’”. When confronted with FBI statistics that dispute this, he snaps that the FBI are corrupt and those numbers are fraudulent. Harris uses this opportunity to tell us how pro-law and order she is and that we have to respect these institutions. Trump turns this into the Democrats “weaponizing the justice department” to go after him. Harris, going back to fear mongering, insists Trump would “terminate the Constitution” if elected. Trump replies to this with the most vitriol we’ve seen all night, “I probably took a bullet to the head because of what they say about me”. 

We’re nearing an hour of this and Palestine has not been mentioned once. However, we’re going to talk about how much both of them love fracking and natural gas and it’s just disgusting. Another fine example of the one party being unable to even pretend to be dissimilar. Trump and Harris then squabble over how much money Trump’s father gave him, ending with Trump snapping at Harris attempting to interrupt him by quoting her, “I’m talking now”. He followed this gem with a low toned “sound familiar?” 

I know this has been a long report, lord knows I’m tired of writing it, but don’t give up on me now for the best is still to come. “She wants to do transgender operations on illegal immigrants in prison”. I’m just leaving it there. It’s incredible and I need to save all the memes it’s produced. I think the Vince McMahon escalating excitement ones are my favorite. 

Next up, the moderators ask Trump if he has any regrets about his part in the January 6th “insurrection”. Trump belligerently brings up Ashli Babbitt being shot by unprofessional cops and rolls that right into immigrants and how we need to be prosecuting them, not our own people. Truly xenophobic stuff that his base is eating up. CBS does little to stop this, nor does Harris. Somehow Trump segues into a joke about Biden, saying he could sign an immigration bill into law right now and to go “wake him up at 4pm”. Oof. 

From here Trump is asked about claims of election fraud in 2020 and he doubles down, yelling about how they have proof and essentially pitches CBS a network special event if they want it. To her credit, Harris finally lands a punch by quipping, “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people and having a difficult time processing that”. 

Harris doesn’t ease up from there, and tells Trump and the viewers that she speaks with world leaders regularly and they say Trump is a “disgrace”. Trump, having none of this, decides to invoke none other than Polish fascist president Viktor Orban, calling him a “strong man” that supports him. This is where things get cattier and cattier. 

Finally, after an hour, we’re talking about the Middle East and Palestine. Harris immediately launches into blaming Hamas and that 11/7/23 was the start of the conflict. This is patently false, ignoring decades of open air imprisonment of Palestinians and the attempted genocide against them. She regurgitates that “Israel has a right to defend itself, we would”. Disgusting. Harris then lies about women being raped during the 11/7 attacks, a lie that both sides use to support the ongoing arms sales to Israel. Finally, Harris says that a ceasefire deal and the return of hostages is the only way for this to end, and that a two state solution is necessary. Same song, while countless Palestinian families are being murdered daily by the evil Israeli state. Trump pivots to Ukraine, saying Putin wouldn’t want him in office and that the invasion never would have happened with him still in office. He shouts that Harris hates Israel, a laughable accusation, and claims Israel “won’t exist in two years if she wins”. I wish. Former President Trump then claims, “She hates the Arab population too because if she wins the whole place will be gone” and that Iran has money for “terror” because his tariffs against them were lifted. This is clearly nonsense, but his base likely ate it up. Harris retorts that Trump wants to be a dictator, before our moderators take us into our first and only break. 

Back from commercial and Trump is asked how he’d solve the war in Ukraine, as he put it, “in 24 hours”. He is also asked, rather aggressively, if he wants Ukraine to win the war. Trump responds saying that more people are dying than the “numbers we’re getting”, citing fake reporting. He says he knows Zelensky and Putin and, in the third person he said, “they respect your president”. He goes on to state “we’re playing with WW3” and shouts, “where’s Biden?” and that we deserve a president who “knows he’s alive”. Classic Don. This is what we’re here for. 

Harris is quick to respond to Trump that, “you’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me”. Says Trump would give up on Ukraine and that she stands behind all the money and weapons they’ve provided to them in the war. She finishes saying Trump would have Putin “sitting in Kiev”. Trump said everything Biden/Harris said before the invasion of Ukraine was “weak and stupid” and blames her for the Ukraine war. 

Harris is then asked about pulling out of Afghanistan, and rather than admitting there were mistakes made, she doubles down on how proud she is of the work they did getting troops out and blames Trump for working with the Taliban. Trump then tells a story about when he met the Taliban leader and said, “I told Abdul, don’t do it anymore”, and showed him a satellite photo of his house as a threat. This is a story Trump's surrogates like to share with the press. 

Harris then moves on to race, and goes right at Trump for his part in the unjust, dehumanizing imprisonment of the Central Park Five. Trump, being Trump, doubles down saying that even Mike Bloomberg agreed with him at the time and that they confessed, completely ignoring that they were coerced and abused by police to make that confession. This was a good shot for Harris when she needed it. 

At this point VP Harris tries to pivot to her plan for small business loans and making it easier for people to buy a home. Before she can get going, probably a blessing for her and her lack of a real plan, Trump starts yelling “she has a plan to take everyone’s guns, defund police, and end fracking”. Harris responds that she and her running mate, Tim Walz, are gun owners and he should stop that nonsense. She then brings up how Trump spoke about John McCain, a real “hero”. Here she leans into how even Republicans are supporting her because of Trump being a disgrace. Trump is then asked about Obamacare and why he didn’t repeal and replace it as he said he would. Trump claimed he now has a “concept of a plan” to finish the job if elected. Trump finishes by stating plainly that Harris wants to take away private insurance for those that can afford it. While I would love that, we know that’s simply not in the neoliberal agenda.

Finally, climate change, thank goodness. Trump shouts, “they’re building factories in Mexico that are owned by China”, which is just INSANE but hilarious at the same time. The need to fear monger China is so strong it’s irresistible to them. To wrap this up, Trump throws out some conspiracy theories about money from Moscow mayors. I’m going to be honest, I don’t know what this was about. 

Closing statements are predictable and nothing really noteworthy is said or done, which is honestly not the worst way for this to have ended. I’ll be honest, these bourgeois elections are nothing but a spectacle to raise money and fool the masses and anyone paying attention knows it. We communists know the truth about capital, it’s control of every aspect of our lives, and the people that work day in day out to keep us working for capital, and not the other way around. 

Good night comrades, a better day awaits. 

Red Help ATX

Rules and Procedures

Mission Statement: We are revolutionary minded Marxist Leninists who believe in building community power through helping our neighbors, educating our friends, and organizing our workplaces. We believe that a revolution which feeds the people, will free the people. 

1. A comrade is disciplined in their revolutionary goals. 

2. A comrade must study Marxism Leninism. Recommended reading list below. 

3. A comrade must participate to the best of their ability to be considered a full member. This includes but is not limited to: attending meetings, coming to drops, fundraising, hosting educational events, organizing externally, participating in discord discussions, submitting substack articles, collecting donations, etc. 

4. A comrade must not be a creep. Your organizing comrades are not your hook up pool. Romance is not banned, but creeping on your comrades will get you expelled. 

5. Snitches get stitches. Anyone found collaborating with cops, feds, republicans, democrats, or other fascists who wish us harm will face severe disciplinary action. 

6. Internal discussions must stay internal (singal, discord, in person). No bashing comrades online. 

To Join:

1. Members must be at least 21 to join.

2. A new comrade must be recommended by an existing member.

3. New comrades may be subjected to an interview by an officer before being accepted.

4. All new members join under a six month probationary period when they may be expelled for any reason. After six months, disciplinary procedures are outlined below. 

5. Red Help ATX does not charge dues, but members are encouraged to donate $5-25 monthly if possible. 

Red Help ATX

Disciplinary Procedures

During the six month probationary period, a comrade may be dismissed for any reason. At the end of this period, the outlined procedures must be followed:

1. The offending member must be informed of the issue in writing, and an in person meeting will be requested. 

2. All sides of an issue will be heard and considered during an investigation period. 

3. Depending on the severity of the offense, the offending member may be required to submit written self criticism, a written apology, temporary suspension, or permanent removal from the organization. 

Red Help ATX 

Reading List

1. Stalin Foundations of Leninism

2. Lenin State and Revolution 

3. Davis Women Race and Class 

4. Stalin Dialectical and Historical Materialism 

5. Marx Wage Labor and Capital 

6. Mao On Practice/On Contradiction 

7. Parenti Blackshirts and Reds 

8. Jackson Blood in my Eye 

9. Fanon Wretched of the Earth

10. Kollontai Autobiogrphy of a Sexully Emancipated Communist Woman 

11. Dutt Fascism and Social Revolution 

12. Engels Socialism, Utopian and Scientific 

13. Lenin Imperialism, Highest Stage of Capitalism 

14. Nkrumah Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism 

15. Shakur Assata: an autobiography 

16. Kropotkin Mutual Aid 

17. Malm How to Blow up a Pipeline 

18. Fletcher Life and Times of a Black Wobbly (looking for digital copy)

19. Che Guerrilla Warfare

20. Marx Capital 

On the evening of Monday, July 15, 2024, the Austin, Texas chapter of the Communist Party USA was liquidated by members of the Texas district committee. The district claims this vote was unanimous, but the representative from Austin was not made aware that this meeting was taking place, nor was she allowed to defend her club or participate in the vote. 

The accusations made towards Austin comrades are factionalism and refusal to follow the Party line on four issues:

• Two delegates leaving during the “Israeli” speech at the National Convention in June 2024

• Not being fully on board voting for Biden/Dems - aka Resolution 5

• In house open discussion of the petition and reasons for its creation (we urged comrades not to sign it)

• Accused of “Black Nationalism” and following the Black Panther Party playbook with our mutual aid work

Let us address these accusations individually. 

Yes, two of us left during the “Israeli” speech at the convention. Is quietly walking outside against the rules? No grand walkout nor vocal statement was made. We simply disagreed with what the man was saying, and thought that inviting him to speak after the Palestinian speaker canceled was bad optics. We stand by this belief. When should comrades dissent if not at the National Convention? Rather than having a comradely discussion on this issue, one of the Party co-chairs chose to make passive aggressive statements in her closing speech, “when you walk out on the representative (from Israel), you are walking out on the Arab working class." We disagree with the validity of her statement. 

Free Palestine. 

Yes, we dissented on Resolution 5, as did half of the delegates present at the convention. Again, when should comrades dissent if not at the National Convention? The Party claims that this “vote against MAGA” resolution is not a “vote for Biden” demand, although several Party members quite literally stated a need to support Biden and the Democratic Party during the shortened convention discussion. 

On the last day of the convention, a white Party elder from Connecticut gave a speech calling all dissenters on Resolution 5 “racist” and “chauvinist” for refusing to support a genocidal, bourgeois administration with the statement, “Black and brown comrades fought and died for the right to vote, and you don’t want to?”

It should go without saying, but Joe Biden has a long history of racism against Black Americans. He is, right now, actively contributing to the genocide of the Palestinian people. Several Black and brown comrades spoke against Resolution 5, and a white woman accusing them of racism is disgusting and unacceptable. 

Many of us were sent “A Comradely Petition” the week after the CPUSA National Convention. This petition was a demand to reopen discussion around Resolution 5 before the National Committee was slated to vote on it. The Austin delegation was in agreement that the petition was silly, and not the correct path forward, but that it was important to understand why it was created. Many rank and file comrades feel that they are not represented by the National Committee. The fact that the discussion around this contentious resolution was cut short added to those feelings. 

All of the Austin delegates advocated against local comrades signing the petition. We did, however, give space for discussion at our local meeting. As many comrades were talking about leaving and searching for a new organization, we also gave space for this discussion. The discussion was very respectful and productive. Some comrades shared that they were ready to leave. Most stated that they preferred to stay and struggle under the Party banner. 

A rat within our organization, who was not present at the National Convention nor at the local meeting, leaked internal documents to members of the Texas district committee. They used these documents without context to frame our discussions as “factionalism.”

Comrades, if you are suspicious of someone within your organization, trust that feeling. 

The most bothersome reason for liquidation is this accusation of “Black Nationalism” levied because we read from members of the Black Panther Party, and participate in mutual aid work.

First, one major problem within the local chapter is that we currently have no Black members. Austin, Texas is the only growing major city in the US with a shrinking Black population. This is mostly due to rapid gentrification thanks to the ongoing tech sector boom and rising cost of living. Historically Black neighborhoods are being demolished for “modern” developments which have caused property taxes to rise rapidly and out of control. Austin is becoming unaffordable for much of the working class, but our Black and immigrant neighbors are the most affected by the rising cost of living.

Second, we see no issue with the concept of Black Nationalism as described by Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. While this is not something we, as a majority white chapter, are openly advocating for, why does CPUSA see Black Nationalism as a threat to their working class movement? It is up to those of us who do not live the Black experience to educate ourselves as much as possible on how to support our Black neighbors, their needs, and understand their experiences. Black Nationalism is simply self determination.

Third, mutual aid is the most important work we do in our community. Period. We were told that organizing with the lumpen proletariat is against the CPUSA Party Program. During our many reads of the Program, we have yet to come across such a passage. One major flaw in the Party is the lack of education around mutual aid and community defense programs, and some of us have brought this up on appropriate occasions. We do also participate in the local electoral struggle, as commanded by the Party. 

Mutual aid is important for many reasons. The most obvious is that we are literally helping vulnerable people. Why would a communist not want to help those in need? It is also a way to meet and work with other individuals and organizations doing similar work in our neighborhoods. This is how we build alliances. It is also how we build community trust. “Communism” can be a scary word in the USA, and when people meet us out in the streets helping each other, we begin to build trust. 

So this is what happened to the Austin, Texas chapter of the Communist Party USA. We no longer exist. Comrades were given the option to reapply to the Party and begin to rebuild from scratch. Everything we built over the last three years is gone. Most of us, including local leadership, are moving on. We have already begun to rebrand as a mutual aid organization, and have set up a meeting in a few weeks. We will be okay, and the work will continue. 

Stay vigilant, comrades. Take care of each other. Support your community. We are all we have. 

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.” - George Jackson

The Communist Party USA has been working from Bulgarian Communist Georgi Dimitrov’s simple definition of fascism, “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.”

This is a good starting point, but it is time to expand that definition. Fascism, like all things in this world, is dialectical. It grows and evolves over time based on material conditions. In 1969, American Marxist George Jackson explained, “We will never have a complete definition of fascism, because it is in constant motion, showing a new face to fit any particular set of problems that arise to threaten the predominance of the traditionalist, capitalist ruling class."

The argument certainly can be made that settler colonialism is a form of fascism, leading to the realization that fascism has been in North America since the establishment of the original thirteen colonies. Some may push back on that idea, and point to the expansion of voting rights, civil liberties, and the New Deal reforms as proof that the USA is not yet fascist. We should, though, remember who the Nazis developed their genocidal ideas of human extermination from. 

Franco-Martinican poet and scholar, Aimé Césaire wrote on the connection between colonialism and fascism, “They prove that colonization… dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it; that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal, accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform himself into an animal. It is this result, this boomerang effect of colonization that I wanted to point out.”

Settler colonialism is one face of fascism. This can look like Zionism in Palestine or Manifest Destiny on Turtle Island. We must understand that settler colonialism is the primary contradiction in the United States, and that it must be addressed as a prerequisite to building socialism in North America. The CPUSA party program should be amended to name settler colonialism as the primary contradiction, and set an intention to address the necessity of the principles of LANDBACK and indigenous sovereignty into our vision of socialism on this continent.

Fascism can look and feel different in different communities. Black American neighborhoods are violently policed, women have no right to bodily autonomy, and queer people are losing access to life saving healthcare. Immigrants are terrorized at the southern border, our government is explicitly and materially backing the genocide of Palestinians, and is and prosecuting citizen protesters at home. Marxist scholar Michael Parenti explained, "To insist that you don't have fascism until every vestige of constitutional government is destroyed and the jack boot is right on our necks is to really overlook the disturbingly anti-democratic manifestations inherent in many nations calling themselves democracies especially in their dealings with left dissenters."

It has been said that when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. We see this openly in the far right, Christian nationalist wing of the GOP. But we also see this from the center-right democrats, including the head of their party, Joe Biden. He openly calls himself a Zionist, has proposed a draconian anti-immigration bill, and then refers to his catholic faith as a guiding principle in his life. This is no different than the aesthetics and actions of senators like Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz. 

The struggle against facism is not just against the ultra-right forces of Trumpian MAGA-ism, but also against the other faction of the bourgeoisie, that which is represented by Democrats like Biden and monopoly capital which support both parties. All must be vigorously opposed and struggled against. 

British Marxist, R Palme Dutt, in 1935, blamed the rise of fascism on the failures of the left. “The continued hesitation and retreat of the reformist working class leadership at each point (policy of the lesser evil) encourages the growth of fascism. On this basis, fascism is able finally to step in and seize the reins, not through its own strength, but through the failure of working class leadership. The collapse of bourgeois democracy is succeeded, not by the advance to proletarian democracy, but by the regression to fascist dictatorship.”

Comrade Stalin explained this, “Fascism is not only a military-technical category. Fascism is the bourgeoisie's fighting organization that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism.”

Dutt and Stalin understood that supporting neoliberal candidates and liberal reforms will not lead us to liberation. In fact, these alliances move us backwards, deeper into fascism. CPUSA must take aim and identify the  Biden wing of the Democratic Party as the fascist development it is, and to take concrete methods of struggling against this wing of bourgeois reaction in addition to the MAGA far right. We must resolve to oppose Biden and his ideological successors in the 2024 Presidential Election and beyond.

Now is not the time for cowardice. Now is the time to take a bold stance against all faces of American Fascism. In order to fight the fascist threat, we must be able to analyze the local conditions that support its rise, name the people and entities which promote and profit from fascism, and together stand in stark contrast against it. We cannot offer the working class a better way until we can explain how current systems are harming us. Understanding fascism, and expanding our understanding of the fascist threat are the first steps. 

1. George Jackson, Blood in My Eye 

2. Joelle Fishman, “What is Fascism?” Article

3. Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism 

4. Michael Parenti, “Fascism, the False Revolution,” lecture

5. R. Palme Dutt, Fascism and Social Revolution 

6. Joseph Stalin, “Concerning the International Situation,” essay 

Comrade George Jackson in 1969 expressed this conundrum succinctly, “The fascists already have power. The point is that some way must be found to expose them and combat them. An electoral choice of ten different fascists is like choosing which way one wishes to die.”

As communists, we should analyze this election scientifically. We can look at present and historical conditions to reach our answer of what is to be done.  

R Palme Dutt in 1935 spoke on the dangers of lesser evil voting, “the continued hesitation and retreat of the reformist working class leadership at each point (policy of the lesser evil) encourages the growth of fascism. On this basis, fascism is able finally to step in and seize the reins, not through its own strength, but through the failure of working class leadership. The collapse of bourgeois democracy is succeeded, not by the advance to proletarian democracy, but by the regression to fascist dictatorship.”

We understand that throughout history, liberals have always sided with fascists. Liberals vote and govern in ways that protect their private property and bourgeois interests. While working class liberal minded folks can be reached with a message of class solidarity, the professional managerial class will always protect their interests. 

Scratch a liberal, and a fascist bleeds. 

Tailing the Democratic Party is out of the question. This major party is fully beholden to the corporate interests that finance it. The DNC is the party of Silicon Valley, of defense contractors, and is now the party of war in Ukraine and genocide in Gaza. If neoliberalism is akin to fascism, then Zionism certainly is a fascistic ideology. We, not only as communists, but as humans, cannot back Joe Biden for president in 2024.

It should go without saying, but we also cannot back the Republican Party. They are the party of Christian Nationalism, of right to work laws, of abortion bans and homophobia. No, we will not support the GOP nor Donald Trump. 

Section Four of the CPUSA Party Program states, “Both Democrats and Republicans have collaborated over many decades to restrict ballot access for ’minor’ parties, massively increasing signature requirements to get on the ballot and increasing the percentage of votes needed to remain on the ballot over several election cycles. Many media outlets also restrict democracy by focusing on the horserace and personality aspects of elections, reporting endlessly on polls and perceptions rather than on coverage of the issues of importance to voters.”

We, as the Communist Party, are considered a minor party. We are running several candidates in local and state races, but we are not running a POTUS candidate in 2024. While we recognize that electing socialists and communists into the bourgeois system will not change it (only revolution can accomplish that goal) we understand that electoral struggle is one method to spread our message of working class solidarity, and to show the masses that the system under which we live is the cause of our pain. We can and should utilize bourgeois electoralism to advance our cause. 

There are many minor parties running candidates with platforms that align more closely to our goals than those of the major bourgeois parties. So the question now is “Shall we form a United Front against fascism with one or more of these minor parties?”

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is running a presidential campaign in 2024, and standing with them could be a great opportunity to form a United Front against the fascism of the neoliberal Democrats and the MAGA Republicans. 

The PSL candidates, Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia, have seven major policy goals stated on their website: 1. Seize the Biggest 100 Corporations, Create A New Economy for the People, 2. Overthrow the Dictatorship of the Rich — Build a Democracy That Serves the Working Class, 3. End the Rule of Money and Lock Up the Corrupt Elite, 4. Cut the Military Budget by 90% — Peace, Not War with China & Russia, 5. End the War on Black America, 6. Defend Women’s Rights, Full Equality for LGBTQ People, and 7. Save the Planet from Capitalism. 

These seven simple goals are not wholly different from the CPUSA party program goals. Claudia and Karina are also under no delusion that they might win the election or if they were to, that their victory would fundamentally change the United States. It couldn’t, but as Lenin explained, running socialist candidates at all levels is one way to spread our message of socialism, and this is their goal in 2024. 

Many CPUSA members have a lot of experience working with Party for Socialism and Liberation comrades on the ground in our communities. We understand that they are good, principled comrades. PSL has been incredibly active in the FREE PALESTINE movement, they rallied with us against the Dobbs decision, and have worked with us on lobbying city councils regarding issues of policing. 

Dr. Cornel West, while not a Marxist, is running a progressive campaign for president as an independent candidate. His platform contains the following pillars: 1. Economic Justice, including a $27/hour minimum wage and breaking up monopolies, 2. Worker Justice - establishing a workers bill of rights and ending “right to work,” 3. Environmental Justice, 4. Health Justice by nationalizing the entire healthcare industry and protecting women’s and LGBTQ healthcare, 5. Racial Justice, including reparations to Black Americans, 6. Transformative Justice - ending mass incarceration and investing in alternatives to policing, 7. Voter Justice - instituting ranked choice voting, 8. Education Justice - canceling all student debt and making community and state colleges tuition free, 9. LGBTQIA Justice, 10. Gun Violence Justice, 11. Immigration Justice, and 12. Global Justice. 

The Communist Party has worked with Dr. Cornel West in the past through the Poor People’s Campaign. He has never claimed to be a Marxist, but he is an anti-imperialist. Take a closer look at his twelfth campaign pillar, Global Justice. This plan includes the goal of an expeditious closure of global U.S. military bases, disbanding NATO, and ending all weapons shipments to Ukraine to instead invest in peacemaking. Ending military aid to Israel, ending Israeli apartheid of the Palestinian people, and pressuring the UN to establish a program for Palestinian dignity and liberation. Ending the embargo on Cuba and normalizing relations by removing the nation from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, and no intervention, military or otherwise, in Haiti. 

Dr. West’s platform of anti-imperialism is well thought out, and stands in stark contrast to the stances held by either leading bourgeois party in the United States. Working through an independent grassroots campaign like his is one way we can spread our message of working class solidarity and anti-imperialism. He is a candidate who has aligned with us in the past, and would likely welcome our alliance in this election cycle. 

If we want to stop the rise of fascism in the United States, we need to work together with other progressive forces, and this election season is an opportune time to reach out. We have built-in allies in the PSL, the Dr. West campaign, Palestinian liberation and anti war groups, labor unions, and workers all over the country disillusioned with the two corporate-aligned imperialist parties. We can use our collective power to show people that we don’t have to settle for an “evil” candidate, but that we can demand a different way of life. We can disrupt this election cycle, and use it to bring working class Americans into the struggle. 

So, let’s form a true United Front against fascism in 2024. Let us join forces with other socialist and communist parties, unions, and unaffiliated comrades. Let us work together to defeat all the faces of fascism, including both major political parties in the USA and their corporate overlords. Let us stand firmly against Zionism, and all aspects of settler colonialism. Let us collectively say, “No!” to militarization of the southern border, “No!” to the oppression of women and trans people, and “No!” to the over-policing of Black and Brown neighborhoods. 

Let us say, “Yes!” to solidarity, “Yes!” to working class power, and “Yes!” to socialism. Let us say, “Yes!” to a United Front against the fascist threat. We have nothing to lose but our chains. 

The president took his time to greet and make small talk on his way to the podium, kissing cheeks, shaking hands, and saying “good to see you” ad nauseam. Chuck Schumer creepily shambled behind him, and right next to him was the Democrats’ current favorite sycophant, Hakeem Jeffries. This process took about six excruciating minutes. Kevin McCarthy then “presented” the president to Congress. Right from the jump, Biden seemed to be at peak energy, for whatever that’s worth. Before even getting started, now greeting people from the podium, Biden stammered through an attempt at a joke about Kamala Harris going to the Super Bowl while he couldn’t. Then, to laugh directly into our faces, Biden jokes to McCarthy, “I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I’m looking forward to working with you.” Oh, the jokes about lame duck deadlocked governmental impotence always land, don’t they? Hakeem Jeffries then gets his moment to be the Democrats’ token Black leader of the party. Biden snuck in a snide “he won that election cause I campaigned for him.”

Once we get into things, the old rhetoric of American progress and perseverance starts us off and Biden doesn’t take long to claim the economy is on the rise and that Covid “no longer controls our lives.” Sure, but that’s because you continue to tell us it’s nothing to worry about.   

After some talk about bipartisanship, the president touts some of the laws he’s passed, like burn pit legislation. This legislation is a step towards better serving veterans, but it’s too little too late for those who have been suffering without treatment covered by the country they fought for. 

Eventually, Biden talks about how terrible things are, but how he’s made progress to “build from the bottom up, not the middle down,” and so on. CNN cuts to Bernie Sanders, the only person wearing a mask. Now we move on to Biden’s accomplishments and the start of his first catch phrase of the night: “finish the job.” “Where is it written that America can’t lead the world in manufacturing?” Well, Mr. President, it’s called capitalism. But you’ll talk more about that later. 

Like butter, we cut right to Ukraine, where Biden brings up grain shortages caused by Putin. Is he suggesting a Holodomor? This is getting out of hand. 

Inflation here is going down, falling every month, while take home pay is going up. This is a lie. More platitudes about hope, and Kamala Harris apparently providing capital for small businesses. 

Here we go, semiconductors and chips, and lamenting about why we don’t produce anymore. Again, Biden doesn’t understand the capitalism he worships. He doesn’t skip a beat getting back to “America first” economic nationalism. This is where Joe debuts his “just getting started” theme. Next up is infrastructure. Transportation Secretary Pete, ignoring what’s actively happening in Palestine, Ohio in real time, gets up before Biden screams at us with an angry finger for being 13th in infrastructure. He touts their bill, but we all know there’s nothing there to fix our infrastructure problems in this country. I’ll give credit where it’s due: Biden was full of energy while he shouts about pride and projects that are going to fix bad pipes and stop brain damage. 

Here’s where things get interesting: former Senator and Vice President Biden tells us that “the law of the land since 1943” has been to “buy American.” He then tells us to our face that our government has been BREAKING THE LAW by not doing just that. Former President Trump literally used the exact same rhetoric and nothing changed. Biden then tells us he gets that people feel forgotten and left behind. He just tells us that jobs are coming back and peoples’ pride is coming back. Empty platitudes, a classic. More Inflation Reduction Act promotion, while telling us just how little they’re actually doing.  

Now we’re on to seniors, and how Medicare being able to negotiate for drugs is going to help save the government money. Very little about the people’s savings. Biden promises to veto anything that raises the price of prescription drugs. Another empty platitude unless a brave Republican dares call his bluff. Pivoting back to the economy, Biden continues to shove electric vehicles down the throats of the poor. Next, we’re reminded that it’s “time for wealthy corporations to pay their fair share. I’m a capitalist, but pay your fair share.” He then weakly said they should pay 15%, “less than a nurse pays,” he bellows, acknowledging how little this will do. Now he gets to brass tax: “Anybody earning less than $400K won’t pay more in taxes, not one penny.” This is INSANE. $400K is middle class?!?! Where? According to MSNBC, a liberal rag, “American households earning as little as $47,189 and up to $141,568 are technically in the middle class.”  A real leader would be pushing for a 0% tax to anyone making less than $50K. Then Biden says, “We’re going to need oil for at least another decade,” which is met by uproarious laughter from the Republicans in the room. “Corporations should do the right thing,” capitalist president Joe Biden says, before telling us he’s forcing them to. He tells us he’s “cracking down on wealthy tax cheats,” and again CNN kills it with a cut to Joe Manchin this time. 

Later than expected, the Republicans start angrily heckling Biden as he claims Trump spent more money than any president ever. Biden then accuses “some republicans” of wanting to let Medicare sunset, or expire. This ENRAGES Marjorie Taylor Greene, who heckles him loudly and shouts “Liar!” Palace intrigue at its finest. Biden ends this bit by asking both parties to agree to not ending Social Security and Medicare, and they all applaud on both sides of the aisle. Magnificent. After some rambling about expanding safety nets, which won’t happen, Biden delivers his classic “capitalism without competition is exploitation.” So close, just need to trim two words out! After talking about capitalism, Biden tells us how the government is stepping in to stop all the ways we’re getting screwed by “junk fees.” He says this without ever recognizing the root causes of how these things came to be. Then, typical bourgeois, he jokes about how some places advertised as resorts “aren’t even resorts,” met with neoliberal laughs. All of these things are performative acts that do nothing to get to the rotten core of capitalism's apple. This is patchwork reform to repair the damage done by a free market. Biden then feigns ignorance about NDAs. To quote the man, “c’mon Jack!” He then uses the example of a burger chef not being able to go from McDonalds to another fast food burger joint across the street. Jesus, these anecdotes show how far from the pulse these people are. Then, he shouts “pass the PRO act” because “workers have a right to organize.” This you, Joe? All of this economic nonsense is another example of Democrats trying to patch up the free market while allowing it to continue running through our lives like a cancer. 

Biden then claims that the rest of the world has “caught up” in education and hence are catching up economically. He then pushes for more preschools and more colleges, both unaffordable for anyone in the ever bloated “middle-class” and impossible for those below the poverty line. 

Then we’re reminded that we’ve “broken the COVID grip on us,” and that we’ll soon “end the public health emergency.” This is nonsense. This virus is still ravaging our streets and hospitals but nobody wants to report and react because of the importance of laborers laboring for capitalist profits. 

Biden quickly pivots to holding those that abused PPP loans accountable. He then starts yelling about cracking down on “criminal syndicates.” Again, what? Congress is a criminal syndicate by definition. 

At 72 minutes, Biden points our attention to the parents of Tyree Nichols, and parrots the media narrative about his murder. He even talks about Black parents and “the talk,” as if he has any idea what he’s talking about. Then, in under three minutes he says “just as everyone with a badge deserves to be able to go home at night, so does everyone else.” From here, he goes on and on about paying cops more and training more of them to somehow make things safer. The entire congress gives the most unified standing ovation of the night to this rhetoric in front of the still grieving family. Throughout this piece, he called Tyree “Tyler” and “Memphis.” I’m sick to my stomach. 

Then, a seamless transition to gun control laws. More performative actions, and capped off by showing off a young man who took down a gunman who had killed 11 people before he got to him. The young man, Brandon, was seated next to Bono, because of course. This was followed by “Ban assault weapons now,” explaining Bono’s presence. Biden then says in 1994 they signed a successful bill that made a difference. This is likely a reference to the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, more commonly known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

Next up, fentanyl, and the border, together! Because immigrants must be the problem. More pathway to citizenship nonsense that Dems have been promising but not delivering for my entire life. Quickly this moves to Roe v Wade, and how he’s doing everything he can but Congress needs to act. Big words with the knowledge that he can’t do a damn thing. His only weapon, which he proudly boasted, is to veto any bill banning abortion. 

More fear mongering and lies about IP theft and China being a military threat to the United States. It’s the same old rhetoric. Then, with a straight face, Biden actually used the balloon as an example of protecting American sovereignty. “Name me one leader that would trade places with Xi Jinping?” This was some demented rambling from an always-been war hawk. 

Now we’re on to burn pits, and Biden leans in to push his bills to increase funding and availability for treatment. From here we pivot to fentanyl and a sob story about a family and their daughter. Fentanyl is apparently killing more than 70,000 people a year. Republicans yelled “China,” “More,” and “your fault!” at the president. All this while pretending Covid is over and not killing more than this per year. Next, he targets social media companies for “experimenting on children for profit.” This man is unwell. This quickly turns into banning the collection of personal data. This isn’t going to please supporters of a “free market.” 

We’re clearly running out of topics, so Biden turns to supporting veterans when they return from combat. “No one should be homeless in America. Especially someone that’s served their country.” This is nothing but empty platitudes, and a further insult to the non-veteran homeless masses living in the streets. Always has been. 

Now we’re talking about cancer, and Biden gets sentimental, but makes sure to fumble over “eight rounds of keno.” This is the same empty promise he campaigned on - nothing has changed.

To wrap things up, we get a shoutout to Paul Pelosi! Have y’all seen the video? This is such a gross waste of time and resources and this drunken thief and his wife should not be celebrated. Law and order, end to hate and violence, yada yada yada. Biden then says, “we’re the only nation based on an idea,” insulting every other sovereign nation throughout history. Typical. Unsurprisingly, the state of the union is defined as “strong” by the sitting president. So it goes. 

Initial digging found a very vague and seemingly stealthy amendment to older laws. This was GOVERNMENT CODE. TITLE 5. OPEN GOVERNMENT;  ETHICS. SUBTITLE A. OPEN GOVERNMENT. CHAPTER 557. SEDITION, SABOTAGE, AND COMMUNISM. SUBCHAPTER C. COMMUNISM. This defines a “communist”, lists restrictions put upon “communists”, and how to enforce these restrictions. The official definition of a “communist” is a person who commits an act reasonably calculated to further the overthrow of the government: (A)  by force or violence;  or (B)  by unlawful or unconstitutional means and replace it with a communist government. (2)  "Department" means the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas. (3)  "Government" means the government of this state or any of its political subdivisions. The most important part to this law is Sec. 557.022.  RESTRICTIONS.  (a)  The name of a communist may not be printed on the ballot for any primary or general election in this state or a political subdivision of this state. This is the law, clear as day, but it doesn’t make any sense. In a note, it says Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.

I quickly learned that this wasn’t just updated in ‘93, but as recently as 2021! Ok, let’s time travel and figure out how this all got started. It seems pretty obvious that this has to have some connective tissue to McCarthy era Red Scare anti-communism laws, but this actually goes all the way back to the oft-forgotten First Red Scare in the late 1910s following the rise of the Bolsheviks. Lesser, mostly unseen, legislation laid the foundation for what would become the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1938. If the HUAC sounds familiar, that’s because it was the committee that carried out anti-communist investigations for the US House while McCarthy ran things in the Senate.

As the Cold War began, Texas Legislation stood against the coming Red Menace with a plethora of harsh anti-communist laws passed from 1947 to 1954. Meanwhile, two successive Texas Governors (Buford H. Jester and Allan Shivers - 1946-1957) championed anti-radical laws and groups, such as the HUAC, throughout Texas. This was followed by anti-communist legislation aimed at tying a “world communist movement” to a threat to the US and Texas’ “constitutional government”. These fears permeated the hearts and minds of Texans and our attempts at organizing our party. It also allowed the passing of legislation that increased military spending and decreased any oversight.1

To further the anti-communist movement, in 1947 the Texas State Legislature passed their first anti-communist legislation in six years, starting the Second Red Scare. Before passing those laws, two anti-union laws were passed. One of these was the Right to Work law, which still plagues our attempts at organizing. So, why can’t Communists openly run for public office in Texas?

During this wave of anti-communist legislation in the Texas House, the Elected Offices-Eligibility act was passed. This changed a number of rules on the subject, but most important to our work was the expansion of restrictions on those “who advocate[ed] [for] the overthrow” of the government of the United States or Texas. Communists were now effectively excluded from participating in the democratic process. This archaic legislation predated Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s wild communist hunt by three years. 

Texas, trailblazer she is, introduced and passed in short order the Communist Control Law in 1951. Three years later, in 1954, the United States Congress swept a bill through their halls and quickly passed the Communist Control Act. Meanwhile, these Texas laws defined various forms of communism and associated organizations existing in Texas. Anyone who identified as a communist or is a dues paying member of a local chapter was forced to register with DPS. 

The most surprising discovery in my research is that as recently as 2019 CHAPTER 557. SEDITION, SABOTAGE, AND COMMUNISM. SUBCHAPTER C. COMMUNISM continues to be reinstated without contest. Now that we know the origins of these anti-communist laws, what effect have they had on modern elections and local representation? The far-right has spent the past 6+ years creating anti-communist rhetoric that targets “progressive” Democrats as “the far-left”. This is clearly nonsense. 

Take for instance, a story from AMAC (Association of Mature American Citizens) which accuses a cadre of Democratic candidates as Communists. This article goes out of its way to quote the law cited earlier, but also quoted Lenin, “When the demonstrations became consolidated, we began to call for their organization and for the arming of the masses and put forward the task of preparing a popular uprising. Without in the least denying violence and terrorism in principle, we demanded work for the preparation of such forms of violence as were calculated to bring about the direct participation of the masses and which guaranteed that participation.”2 What a strong quote to try and twist to scare fragile Americans into voting for their candidates in the coming elections. Whatever truth there is to Communists running as Democrats to circumvent the law, the results seem clear, the people aren’t as afraid of the Communist Boogeyman as the far-right was counting on. 

While researching this piece, an important legal decision was made that completely changed my hopeful conclusion, so I apologize for reality’s inconvenience. At the time of researching this, Madison Cawthorn, January 6th rioter and attempted South Carolina congressman, had just scored a huge win against liberals attempting to disqualify him from running for office. His defense used a statute I found very useful to the cause here in Texas. 

The 14th amendment states “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” That due process appears to be infringed upon by our Texas sedition laws, and like Cawthorn I think there’s a real case to be made. The way I see it is if this was to go to court, it might not get the attention it deserves from our higher courts. 

There is no reason a Communist cannot run for local office legally and I believe it’s high time we combat this electoral malfeasance. Find local offices where you can run as part of a party and run on the Communist Party USA party platform.  

“For the proletariat is the only class that is consistently revolutionary, the only class that can unite all the working and exploited people in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, in completely removing it.” - Vladimir I Lenin.

In a strong showing of anti-imperialist solidarity and left unity, more than a dozen comrades from CPUSA and PSL joined Nonviolent Austin for a peace vigil followed by a rally to end all war. Chants of “No war! No sanctions, No coups!” were heard by passersby in front of the Texas capitol at 11th and Congress as demonstrators demanded peaceful negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a war that is the direct result of US imperialism. Holding signs that said “end global conflict, abolish NATO,” hands off Haiti,“ and “no war but class war,” our vocal group waved at passing vehicles who honked their horns in solidarity. During afternoon rush hour in downtown Austin, almost all the feedback from residents was positive.

After Nonviolent Austin’s peace vigil, more comrades arrived and rallied with us to demand that the US immediately stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, abolish NATO, and withdraw troops from all global conflicts

Some comrades made speeches, yelling through a bullhorn as cars and pedestrians passed by the rally. “We have to say no to US interventions, even when they appear to us as so-called humanitarian interventions,” a PSL comrade said. “We know that the US does not give a damn about the human rights of anyone on the planet.”

The founder of Nonviolent Austin provided historical and spiritual context to the current struggle for world peace:

“Mohandas Gandhi, arguably the most effective anti-imperialist of the 20th century, while being a faithful Hindu all his adult life, was also arguably the most accurate activist interpreter of the life and teaching of the activist Jesus. Dorothy Day, Martin King, Dan and Phil Berrigan. Howard Thurman, James Boston. Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. Notably brought Gandhi's analysis and beneficence to US soil.”

“We need each other as we seek to remove the societal pillars that prop up imperialism and militarism, white supremacy and plantation capitalism, patriarchy and the destruction of Earth.”

The Communist Party USA has a long history of peace activism. We recognize that workers are the victims on both sides of all imperialist wars and military adventures. We need peace, justice, and equality. We need socialism. Join us!

Recently, a communist group’s article about why their community should oppose the construction of a methadone clinic resurfaced online. The authors promise to fight with concerned neighbors to prevent a drug treatment facility from opening in their neighborhood. With no evidence and no material analysis, they instead employ reactionary, feelings-based arguments that the proposed clinic would make their neighborhood unsafe. This nimbyism is expected from reactionaries and liberals, but coming from communists, it’s shocking and disappointing. Their response to the construction of a life-saving health care facility was that they “feel treatment facilities shouldn’t be in an inner city. We think we need to put them somewhere out in the suburbs. Basically, away from everybody.”

The Communist Party USA’s program, Road to Socialism USA, says that we “stand with the workers of our country, and the working class of the whole world, for health care for all, for an end to income inequality, against racism, sexism, and all injustice.” It is important to recognize that drug treatment facilities are health care facilities, and our party program is clear about where we stand on health care for all. The crisis of global capitalism has resulted in immense inequalities, including less access to health care in poor and working class communities. It has also created the epidemic of drug addiction by prioritizing profits for the pharmaceutical industry over the health and quality of life of humanity. The opioid crisis is a byproduct of capitalism. The Communist Party’s slogan is “people before profits,” and there are no exceptions. We’re either for the people or we’re against them. 

The opioid crisis has wreaked havoc on the US in recent years. The rate of drug overdose deaths is on the rise, and it skyrocketed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is the most effective tool to combat the crisis of opioid use disorder (OUD). However, in 2020, only 11% of people with OUD received medication. Methadone has been shown to be effective at treating OUD for more than 50 years, but limitations requiring the drug to only be administered at government-regulated opioid treatment programs (OTPs) presents a barrier to treatment for many Americans. The methadone treatment capacity of the US has not kept up with the rise in opioid overdose deaths, and many patients who could benefit from methadone treatment are not able to access it due to geographical restrictions. According to a 2021 research study, nearly three million adults across the US lacked access to OTPs within a 2-hour drive from their community. Research has shown that geographical distance is negatively associated with health care utilization. For a working class person trying to get addiction treatment, a long-distance commute to the nearest treatment facility is a major barrier. Federal, state, and local governments should be doing everything in their power to make access to life-saving health care facilities that treat OUD more equitable. Communists should not stand in the way of efforts to increase access to treatment for people suffering with OUD.

Nimbys argue against drug treatment centers like methadone clinics because they fear that these facilities will make their neighborhoods less safe. They conflate drug users with crime and falsely suggest that the patients receiving MAT at these facilities will bring with them a dangerous, criminal element. This mentality is heavily informed by stigma and is based on feelings and perceptions rather than material data and evidence. There is no scientific evidence to support the belief that treatment facilities increase crime rates. In fact, the research shows the opposite. Researchers in Philadelphia conducted a study to examine crime rates around methadone clinics and found that there is a significant decrease in total crime in areas close to a treatment facility. Another study in Baltimore found no correlation between crime rates and proximity of methadone clinics. Despite the lack of evidence to support the claim that drug treatment facilities bring more crime to the areas they serve, nimby attitudes continue to stigmatize drug users and make it more difficult for patients to receive treatment. 

Stigma is one of the many contributing factors for why people with OUD often do not get the treatment they need. Research shows that addiction is one of the most stigmatized conditions, and patients with substance use disorders report feeling discriminated against, feared, and abandoned. Unfortunately, even after making the decision to seek treatment for their substance use disorders, patients often face stigma from friends, coworkers, family, and even from health care providers. Insisting that patients travel long distances from their communities to a clinic that’s “away from everybody” reinforces stigma and creates one more barrier to treatment, especially for low-income patients. Speculating that a clinic designed to provide MAT services would increase crime in the community also reinforces stigma. Shame and lack of access are significant barriers that people with OUD face every day; many people die before they’re able to overcome these hurdles. “People before profits” means we must support all people, including drug users. In addition to supporting full funding for health care facilities that offer MAT to patients suffering with substance use disorders, we must go further and support full funding for harm reduction services like clean needle exchanges, fentanyl testing kits, and safe injection sites.

We must work to educate people in our communities about drug addiction and treatment options. More than 105,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021. The death toll will continue to increase until we challenge the liberal narrative that people suffering with substance use disorders are criminals. As communists, we must fight back against this liberalism - not encourage it. We must treat people with dignity and respect in their struggles with addiction. We must challenge our own biases and attitudes, using dialectics to elicit truth. We must put all people before profits.

This abortion ban was enforced to varying degrees over the following century, generally only if the patient experienced complications. Then, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the rise of feminism brought new scrutiny to the fairness of such bans. In 1970, two young lawyers from Dallas, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, brought forth a case challenging Texas’s century old ban on abortion. Roe v Wade worked its way to the Supreme Court, and in 1973, the right to privacy regarding medical decisions was declared victorious, and ensured the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability. 

With Roe now the law of the land, Texas’s ban became essentially moot, but was never removed from the penal code. For the nearly 50 years since the ruling, the far right wing of the Texas bourgeoisie, along with the conservative religious right, has been working diligently to recriminalize abortion care. In the last decade, as the majority of the population moved politically and socially left, the far right has made strides in chipping away at the human rights of Texans. 

Famously, in 2013, state senator Wendy Davis delivered an impassioned 11 hour filibuster to stop a bill which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks, and established such strict regulations on medical facilities that provide abortion care that 37 of Texas’s 42 clinics would have been forced to close. Her win that evening was a relief for millions of poor and rural Texans who would have lost access to this healthcare procedure. 

A similar bill was passed the next legislative session. 

Eight years later, in September 2021, SB8 was enacted, outlawing abortion after 6 weeks since last menstrual period. This sneaky bill got around Roe protections by instituting a $10,000 bounty on those who help a Texan obtain abortion access. Any person could bring forth a lawsuit against a friend, partner, healthcare worker, even an Uber driver who assisted a Texan in terminating a pregnancy. 

In anticipation of the reversal of Roe, Texas also passed a “trigger law” in 2021. This full abortion ban went into effect 30 days after the Dobbs decision was released. As the law now stands, anyone who helps Texans receive abortion care, this includes friends, family social workers, doctors, nurses, anyone who helps them receive abortion care, is subject to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine, andloss of medical license if applicable. The only time an abortion is legal is when the pregnant Texan is on their literal deathbed. They will allow a patient to go into septic shock before evacuating an already deceased fetus.

This ban comes at the same time that the state is actively assaulting the rights of transgender Texans. Make no mistake, these attacks are related. The far right comes after anything that doesn’t fit their ideal cis, white, evangelical lifestyle. They criminalize the existence of anyone who challenges their hegemony. 

So what is to be done? Texans are angry, scared, and in desperate need of direction. There is an election coming up, and the main focus appears to be, “Vote them out.” The opposition to the far right in Texas is putting all of their energy into Democratic candidates this election cycle, but they are sending a lot of mixed messages, adding to further confusion. 

At a recent rally put on by Women’s March Austin, most speakers focused on increased voter turnout in November. A speaker from Planned Parenthood Central Texas stated that “there is one man to blame for this, and that is [current governor] Greg Abbott.” This statement unfortunately fails to name the true culprit, the systems of patriarchy and capitalism. It implies that removing one man from office would solve all the problems currently facing Texans suffering under these systems. We must dismantle these systems of oppression if we are ever to liberate ourselves. 

How can anyone know how to fight against encroaching fascism if those currently leading us are afraid to name it? This void in leadership gives room for communists and the greater political Left to step in and organize. It is time for communists to educate and lead the masses. We understand what it takes to defeat fascism; in 1945, our predecessors famously stopped one of the most dangerous fascist movements in history. 

As The Communist Party, we can use the existing framework of bourgeois electoralism to spread our message of working class liberation. If we understand that fascism is a violent reaction of capital in distress, that it is the most reactionary, chauvinistic, and imperialist aspects of finance capital, then the only true way to vote against fascism is to vote for anti-capitalist candidates. The Party absolutely must run its own socialist candidates. This can be done openly where it is allowed, or covertly under a major party’s banner in states like Texas where our Party is illegal. We do not need to win every one of these races for this method to be successful. Just using the platforms given to political candidates would be an incredible boost in spreading our message of working class liberation. We use these existing systems to bring more people into the struggle, and perhaps in future elections, we can win some institutional power and work to destroy the system from the inside. 

The second method for approaching bourgeois elections is to volunteer with local “progressive” candidates. There are actually plenty of candidates willing to work with the Communist Party. The Austin club has been canvassing with a local city council candidate who approached us about working together. Some of the benefits of this approach include relationship building, which will give us a pool of support to draw from when we are ready to run our own candidates. Communism is about creating community, and we can expand our reach by working with established progressive candidates. By working on these campaigns, we also get to see how the system works from the inside, which helps us prepare to run our own candidates in the future. The more involved we are at the grassroots level, the more we can force the system to bend to our will. 

In cases where there is no progressive candidate to work with, we should support the best of the bad options. Most Texans understand that Democrats won’t be willing or able to undo all the evil the GOP has brought upon our state, but will they slow the bleeding? Maybe. We all hate the idea of “lesser evil” voting, but generally a Band-Aid is better than another bullet hole. If a Democrat is vowing to stop the prosecution of abortion pills, then they are better than the GOP candidate who wants to charge distribution of medication as murder. It truly is that simple. Accept the Band-Aid while we continue to build revolutionary power. 

It is important to note that the other side of supporting a major party candidate is that we absolutely MUST point out the failures of that candidate. Some may put forward milquetoast positive reforms, but we live under a system which cannot be reformed. When liberal politicians inevitably fail their constituents, and they always will, it is our job to educate our community as to WHY they failed - because they support the oppressive system of capitalism that is crushing all of us. We show them a better way. We never just vote for the lesser evil. We use them as an educational tool, and continue building our revolutionary movement.

Beto O’Rourke is the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, and the only candidate with even a slim chance of beating the GOP incumbent, openly fascist, Greg Abbott. Most communists and those on the greater Left are supporting him in this race. Will Beto be willing or able to fundamentally change things in Texas? Will he have the ability to reestablish abortion rights? Will all the clinics that were forced to close reopen under him? No, there is no magic wand to wave which will fund, build, open, and staff clinics. It will take years to undo the damage caused by this abortion ban. Will his election pause the prosecutions, and allow us to continue to organize for a better future? Yes. 

There are many limitations to working within the bourgeois electoral system, but that does not mean that it isn’t worth participating, and encouraging others in our community to participate. We must take advantage of every avenue available to us to advance the struggle against patriarchy and capitalism. Many working people believe in and actively participate in bourgeois elections. It would be foolish of us to neglect to utilize that path ourselves. We must meet the people where they are. Go to their events. Talk to them at work or in bars or in parks and at protests. Actively participate in their elections. Talk to them about what they care about. Educate them, and lead them towards the realization that we need radical, systemic change. 

The number one goal as communists must be growing the Party and building the working class movement towards socialist revolution. Every single thing we do is with that goal in mind. While we fight for small concessions from the bourgeoisie, none of our problems will ever be solved under capitalism. Capitalism relies on continual crisis, and threats of removal of our rights to keep us in line. The only path that leads towards liberation of the working class is socialist revolution. 

Revolution is simultaneously a process and the goal of the process, because the goal is not static - revolution is not a state of affairs to achieve, but constant progress towards better states of affairs, and we must always educate, organize, agitate, and yes, vote with these goals in mind.

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