The essence of the minimum program generally remains the same (i.e., the struggle for expansion of suffrage and democracy, civil liberties, reduction in working hours and days, and better working conditions). The form, however, changes. Though one general constant is the striving of unity between the left (general left, not just communists) with the political center (those who agree on questions of expanding democracy, civil rights, and working conditions, but do not yet see the utility in social revolution).^[1]

The Left-Center Unity has come in a range of forms, from the temporary coalition of the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the Liberals to overthrow the Tsarist monarchy, to the United Front during the period of counter-revolution after the October Revolution, to the People’s Fronts against fascism during WWII. Today, with the domination of society by monopoly capital, where bourgeois democracy still exists but in a severely hampered state by a dominant oligarchy, the necessary intermediate form is a coalition of all forces opposed to the anti-democratic rule of monopoly. This coalition can also be called the Anti-Monopoly Coalition. We will discuss various forces and their interests within the coalition.

Comrade General Secretary Gus Hall, in his report to the 20^th National Convention of the Communist Party USA stated:

“Our [the Communist Party] approach is based on the basic premise that there is no other purpose or reason for any activity in the organized society except to serve the people. Costs, private profits, are totally irrelevant to the basic purpose of an organized society.”

He continues:

“Our position is – make the monopoly corporations pay the tab. If the corporations say they cannot operate – which is fakery in 99 percent of the cases – then take the operation over. Nationalize the industry. We are for a law which states that before a corporation can move a factory, it must have the agreement of the union and the community. If it disregards the wishes of the people – take the operation over.”^[2]

Herein lies the essence of the Anti-Monopoly Coalition and its role in today’s society: to build a broad, working class led democratic coalition against monopoly parasitism. We will discuss the concept further in the following sections.

What is the Anti-Monopoly Coalition?

At the Third Congress of the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA), the Party passed a motion to build such an anti-monopoly coalition as a modern iteration of the People’s Front against the growing fascist threat. What is the basis of such a coalition? As Gus Hall, then General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), advised:

“The anti-monopoly concept is a broad, flexible term reflecting the varied nature of the struggle. Anti-monopoly struggles take place in every sector of life because monopolies dominate every sector of life. The anti-monopoly struggles are laying the bricks for an anti-monopoly coalition. The specific issues that give rise to anti-monopoly struggles are economic, political, anti-war, for civil rights, and for democracy. The working class is forced to take an anti-monopoly position. The struggles in all sectors move toward a confrontation with monopoly corporations.”^[3]

Comrade Gus Hall continues:

“The basis for anti-monopoly politics is political independence from the twin parties of capitalism. There will be a period when the independent forces will use the two-party, one-class electoral apparatus, which serves monopoly, but the struggle must be for the breaking of that political vise and the setting up of a new anti-monopoly party based on the working class.

“The aim of the anti-monopoly struggles must be the creation of an anti-monopoly coalition strong enough to break the economic and political stranglehold of monopoly capital. This, of necessity, means a struggle for economic and political power. Economic and political power cannot evade the question of state power. It means anti-monopoly state power.”^[4]

In its essence, the anti-monopoly coalition is a mass movement of all anti-monopoly forces aimed at wresting power away from monopoly capital. In this period of rising fascism, the anti-monopoly coalition acts as the modern incarnation of the People’s Front, which, with Communist leadership, is the bulwark needed to defeat fascism. The ultimate goal is to usher in the transition towards socialism with a People’s Front government.

Left-Center Unity as the Basis of the Anti-Monopoly Coalition

As was stated previously, there are two main trends within the Anti-Monopoly coalition: the Left and the Center. The left forces are those who have arrived at a class-conscious approach to labor and other progressive struggles, as opposed to the right forces that push for anti-strike, class collaboration with the bosses, and their agents. The Center within the Left-Center Anti-Monopoly Coalition is the masses of people, including a large chunk of the working class, who lack their own direction but are honest and operate in good faith. Taking wisdom yet again from Gus Hall, we see:

“Examining the forces involved and their positions, it is clear that the Center forces have an intermediate position on economic struggles, not consistently militant; a Center position on the struggle against racism sometimes seeks opportunistically to get around the issue; and on political action they are moving in a Left direction but have not yet reached the level of the Left and broken with the two old parties. They are honest, positive, militant forces, often influenced by Left concepts and ideas, but they have some limitations.”^[5]

This observation is an important concept to understand in the building of the Anti-Monopoly Coalition. The Center’s lack of direction causes it to attach itself to either the Left or the Right. Sectarianism within the left is most fatal to building a coalition. This sectarianism causes the Left to reject the Center when the Center does not agree with the more militant demands of the Left. When rejected by the left forces, the center will move rightwards. When Capitalism is in crisis, and the Center becomes disillusioned with the class-collaborationism of the Right, they begin a transition to the left. This transition should be viewed positively by the Left, which can lead the Center to a greater militancy through a patient, yet determined, struggle.

Within both the Left and Center, there are subsections which, in general, share the same interests and demands as the whole but also have special needs that must be met to bring about unity with the whole. These sections include racial minorities, women, the elderly, youth, the foreign-born, LGBT+, and others. Among some, even on the “Left,” there is a fatal error of ignoring these special demands and instead declaring that “the working class is the working class and nothing else.” In reality, society is dominated and shaped in the image of monopoly capital. This monopoly capital institutes inequality among social classes, namely between the minority class that owns the vast proportion of capital and the majority that does not own capital and must work to make ends meet. How then can this monopoly minority maintain control over the majority of toilers?

Comrade Henry Winston correctly remarked,

“But a strategy for Black liberation—as well as a strategy for building a mass alternative to monopoly’s two parties—must first of all recognize the special role of Black workers within the Black liberation movement as a whole, and in the general class struggle of the multi-racial working class.

“Despite the divisiveness of racism, the objective historical process is merging Black workers with the general class struggle. … The Black liberation movement as such does not and will not merge with the working class. To advance the idea of such a merger can be of assistance only to those who would ideologically disarm the Black workers, and divert them from their dual historic role of participating fully and leading equally in the general class struggle, while leading the Black liberation movement. To convey the impression that the Black people as a whole merge into the working class obscures in particular the responsibility of white workers in building an alliance between the multi-racial working class, the Black liberation movement, and all the oppressed as central to the anti-monopoly struggle.”^[6]

The truth is, as pointed out by Winston, that the working class is already disunited on many forms of bigotry and chauvinism created and imposed upon the working class by Wall Street and their cronies. To properly build a people’s movement and anti-monopoly mass party, the communist and progressive forces cannot ignore the double and triple oppression that certain minorities face on top of class oppression. Winston above specifically discusses black liberation struggle, but his analysis can and must be applied to other struggles, such as the struggles for women’s and LGBT+ equality, the struggles for equal access to housing, healthcare, and quality education, the struggle for environmental protection from corporate destruction, and others. These struggles, while not directly focused on exploitation in the workplace, are nonetheless workers’ and people’s struggles whose victories will deal a massive blow to monopoly capital.

Anti-Monopoly Struggle Unites Working Class with Class Allies

In the Anti-Monopoly Coalition, just as in all intermediate forms of the past, societal unrest was not restricted solely to the industrial proletariat. The labor movement serves as the nucleus in which all the frustrated masses belonging to all classes who suffer under the conditions imposed by monopoly capital. Comrade Lenin spoke clearly on this reality:

“… strengthen our faith in the might of the labour movement we lead; for we see that unrest in the foremost revolutionary class is spreading to other classes and other strata of society, that it has already led, not only to the rousing of the revolutionary spirit among the students to a degree hitherto unparalleled, but to the beginning of the awakening of the countryside, to greater self-confidence and readiness to struggle on the part of social groups that have until now (as groups) not been very responsive.

“Public unrest is growing among the entire people in Russia, among all classes, and it is our duty … to exert every effort to take advantage of this development, to explain to the progressive working-class intellectuals what an ally they have in the peasants, in the students, and the intellectuals generally, and to teach them how to take advantage of the flashes of social protest that break out, now in one place, now in another, We shall be able to assume our role of front-rank fighters for freedom only when the working class, led by a militant revolutionary party, while never for a moment forgetting its special condition in modern society and its specific historic task of liberating humanity from economic enslavement, will raise the banner in the struggle for freedom for the whole people and rally to this banner those of the most varied strata …”^[7]

While the other classes, ruined and made destitute by monopoly capital, will flock around such a coalition to wrest basic standards of democracy and living, the coalition must be led by the working class, who are most conscious of the class nature of exploitation. The intermediate classes and working class strata: the petty bourgeoisie, intellectuals, labor bureaucrats, etc., are compelled to vacillate between the two dominant classes. As Comrade Stalin puts it, the:

“… intermediate middle strata, which either take the side of one or the other of these two conflicting classes, or else take up a neutral or semi-neutral position in this struggle …”^[8]

For this reason, when the agitated masses of the intermediate classes and strata take up struggle against the oligarchic order without a labor leadership, they tend generally towards either: class-collaboration, aimless protest, or even nihilistic individualism. One can look to protests such as the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011 that lasted two months and ultimately fizzled out due to a lack of a concrete platform of demands and organization. The point is not to reject such mass movements wholesale, but to understand that, with a lack of leadership of the working class and particularly an advanced working class vanguard, such movements are doomed to dissipate or be limited in their achievements against Wall Street’s political domination. We will now take a closer look at the role of the working class within the Anti-Monopoly Coalition.

Working Class as the Leaders in the Anti-Monopoly Coalition

US society is at a critical crossroads. The path society takes can lead the country forward into a stronger democracy that allocates its resources for the good of humanity over the profits of private monopolies. Conversely, society can also move further towards fascism, where democracy is at best an empty word and where the working class can barely afford to survive. The direction society takes is largely dependent on the will of its constituents. If we as a country choose democracy and prosperity, we need to form a multi-fronted force that struggles for political independence from the monopolies: big business, banks, and Wall Street.

Labor, and in particular, a class-oriented trade union movement, has a crucial role to play within this Anti-Monopoly Coalition. Labor is to be the heart of this coalition. While the coalition is to unify all progressive and democratic forces (such as workers, students, urban professionals, farmers, small business owners, etc.), the working class is the force that has the power, if leveraged correctly, to bring the economy to a halt until its demands are met. The workers control the production, the shipment, and even the commerce of goods. The bosses and monopolies that dictate policies onto society are the ones who rely on the working class the most.

For labor to play the leading role in the Anti-Monopoly Coalition, it first has to work tirelessly to bring unity to the trade union movement. Concretely, this effort will have the following immediate goals:

1. Ending any prejudices within the unions, such as racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant sentiments, which breaks up solidarity and even prevents entry to the organized labor movement by key sections of labor.
2. Organizing the unorganized to bring unity between unionized and non-unionized labor.
3. Pushing for a nationwide right to organize and against any attempts at systematic opening of shops, such as so-called “right to work” laws.
4. Amalgamating small craft unions into unions on industrial lines.
5. Pushing to overturn laws, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, which restrict solidarity strikes.
6. Forming caucuses within unions that struggle for trade union democracy, such as the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU).

As the Anti-Monopoly Coalition emerges, organized and militant labor must be ready to take leadership. To ensure success, labor has to work on the above goals. In working on these goals, militant labor leaders will inevitably clash with the bosses’ agents and reactionary trade union leaders within the unions that obstruct the independent political action of labor.

The Anti-Monopoly Coalition in Politics

Drawing again from his report to the 20th National Convention of the CPUSA, Gus Hall asserts:

“We must reject any narrow idea that elections are limited to a few demagogic speeches and casting a vote. We must see it as a form of mass struggle in which millions are actively involved.”^[9]

“What are our overall goals?”

Comrade Hall asks. He responds:

• First, they are to halt the present dangerous and reactionary course of developments in the nation.
• Second, to turn the country towards an anti-monopoly course of peace, economic stability, and a wider-based democracy; to bring about the crystallization of a broad people’s coalition, of the anti-monopoly, anti-war, anti-racist, anti-fascist, pro-labor forces in the United States.
• Third, to force an end to US aggression in Indo-China [today in the Middle East; my comment]. …
• Fourth, to bring about the defeat of the most reactionary anti-labor, racist, pro-war candidates, and the election of independent candidates – the election of workers, Black Americans, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, women, youth, poor farmers, of progressive, left, and Communist candidates in their place.
• Fifth, to give the people an opportunity to hear, read, and see where the Communist Party [Party of Communists USA] stands on the issues.
• And sixth, to get the largest possible votes for the Communist candidates as the strongest, longest-lasting, most meaningful protest against the reactionary policies of Monopoly Capital.

And finally:

“In general terms, our aim is to expose and defeat the reactionary candidates, to sharply criticize the [establishment] liberal candidates, and to give support to the progressive independent candidates. We will expose to defeat, we will criticize to strengthen, and we will support to elect.”

The ultimate goal of the Anti-Monopoly Coalition is to unite all progressive forces of the Left-Center people’s front away from the two-party duopoly towards independent political action. This can take multiple forms as it builds towards the ultimate goal of a labor-led political party (most commonly understood as a labor party) to go against the parties of monopoly capital.

These paths are featured within the PCUSA’s three-legged stool approach to electoral politics. The three-legged stool consists of:

1. The first leg is running our candidates under the Party of Communists USA, where and when feasible.
2. The second leg is running with other forces in a formation that is independent of the Two-Party setup, where possible. This formation can be referred to as an “Electoral Front”.
3. If the other two avenues are not possible, or appropriate, the third leg of the stool is to support regional or national progressives who are members of established political parties whose platform is pro-labor, against imperialist war, and thus anti-fascist, and against bigotry.^[10]

This shows that the PCUSA’s electoral strategy is based on the anti-monopoly coalition. A recent example of the anti-monopoly coalition in action: New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York City Mayor.

The Zohran Mamdani campaign has been rooted in an anti-monopoly message, uniting New Yorkers of all backgrounds in a movement against the monopoly-controlled Democratic Party establishment in New York City. Comrade Hall made it clear how the mood of the masses affects bourgeois politics:

“As a rule, election time speeches by bourgeois politicians are a much more accurate reflection of the mood of the masses than they are of where they themselves stand. The candidates are either ‘turning the country around,’ or they are offering ‘a totally new beginning’ …”^[11]

Assemblyman Mamdani has run a progressive, borderline Socialist campaign representing the interests of the working class of New York City. At the heart of this campaign is a volunteer network of well over 40,000 New Yorkers led by an active rank-and-file movement within labor. While the misleaders of labor were on board with endorsing the boss-backed candidate, disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, in the Democratic Primary, then rank-and-file movements sprang into action:

“… as many of NYC’s misleaders of labor were preparing to endorse Cuomo, rank-and-file leaders stepped up to fight back against this betrayal. The misleaders of AFSCME DC37  and UFT, two unions who led a massive betrayal by spearheading Mayor Eric Adam’s plan to force all retirees into a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, were set to back Cuomo until rank-and-file leaders got word and organized members against Cuomo. In a surprise move, DC37 ended up endorsing Mamdani, while the UFT, in attempt to face no political backlash, would refrain from endorsing anyone in the primary. The since voted-out leadership of SEIU Local 1199 endorsed Cuomo in April, now a rank-and-file movement is fighting to rescind that endorsement as well.”^[12]

We cannot forget the rank-and-file-led United Auto Workers District 9A, leading the way in pushing an endorsement of Assemblyman Mamdani in December 2024, long before he was viewed as a viable candidate.

With a robust rank-and-file movement behind him, Assemblyman Mamdani would go on to win the Democratic Party nomination for Mayor, receiving the most votes ever in a New York City Mayoral Primary. This is a clear sign that an anti-monopoly electoral strategy is not just a viable option to show the failures of bourgeois democracy, but can be a successful catalyst towards building working-class power.

A Brief Polemic Against the Ultra-Left that Scoffs at the Anti-Monopoly Coalition

Within the Left, three trends have historically and still exist today on the question of participation in electoral politics and the struggle for legislative reforms. There is a central current that understands the utility of bourgeois politics. This current uses electoralism as a tool in securing better conditions for the working class and the building of broader democratic coalitions.  They also make use of parliamentarism as a propaganda tool to expose the politically bankrupt bourgeois parties and their reactionary leadership. This trend, which the Marxist-Leninists belong to however also understands parliamentarism as a tactic and not an end in itself.  On either side of the central current exist the right opportunists or the ultra-left, both of which do not make an attempt to differentiate between the minimum and maximum programs and thus see the struggle for democratic reforms as the same struggle for a socialist mode of production. These two extremes both display their petty bourgeois wavering in their own way. The right opportunists ignore the need for any eventual social revolution and substitute a gradualist theory of reform whereby socialism will come from parliamentarism under a bourgeois state. The Ultra-Left, which today poses a bigger threat to the Communist and democratic movements, will be the main focus.

The Ultra-Left, just like their right opportunist siblings, obfuscate the minimum and maximum programs. However, their confusion takes on a different form than the rightists. For the ultra-leftist, parliamentarism has no role in left politics. They will, under various facades, reject all democratic reforms and electoralism under the capitalist system and instead demand “revolution now.” They cannot fathom any progress unless under a proletarian state, or no state, according to the anarchists. Lenin rebukes this concept, saying:

“Parliamentarism has become ‘historically obsolete.’ That is true as regards propaganda. But everyone knows that this is still a long way from overcoming it practically. Capitalism could have been declared, and with full justice, to be ‘historically obsolete’ many decades ago, but that does not at all remove the need for a very long and very persistent struggle on the soil of capitalism. Parliamentarism is ‘historically obsolete’ from the standpoint of world history, that is to say, the era of bourgeois parliamentarism has come to an end and the era of the proletarian dictatorship has begun. That is incontestable. But world history reckons in decades. Ten or twenty years sooner or later makes no difference when measured by the scale of world history; from the standpoint of world history, it is a trifle that cannot be calculated even approximately. But precisely for that reason, it is a howling theoretical blunder to apply the scale of world history to practical politics.

“Is parliamentarism ‘politically obsolete’? That is quite another matter. Were that true, the position of the ‘Lefts’ would be a strong one. But it has to be proved by a most searching analysis, and the ‘Lefts’ do not even know how to approach it. In the ‘Theses on Parliamentarism,’ published in the Bulletin of the Provisional Bureau in Amsterdam of the Communist International, No. l, February 1920, and obviously expressing the Dutch-Left or Left-Dutch strivings, the analysis, as we shall see, is also hopelessly bad.”^[13]

The reality facing us today is one where the masses, including the working masses, have not yet reached the point of abandoning the old system for the new. It should seem obvious that substituting all legislative reforms for “revolution now” can lead to nothing but so-called “revolutionary” adventurism, which will be discussed in more detail within this issue. Communists (those who follow the lead of our forefathers: Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin), correctly understand that the masses, with the working class as the leadership, are the motive force behind social revolution. Without the connection of the so-called “revolution” to the masses, all one can expect at best is to achieve a minority insurrection or coup d’etat (i.e., replacing one leadership for another under the same bourgeois system). However, more likely than not, the insurrection will be drowned in blood and so will give pretext by the most reactionary capitalists to institute martial law and throw society into a new indiscriminate reign of terror.

Conclusion

Experience shows that with every attempt to introduce progressive reforms into the Democratic Party, the monopoly-dominated Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its special interest leaders thwart attempts by the American people to institute progressive policies. This has been exemplified by Bernie Sanders’ campaigns, or the newest example: the Zohran Mamdani NYC mayoral campaign, being attacked from all angles, especially by the DNC establishment.

Finance capital, viewing progressive candidates within its ranks as a threat, is compelled to push anti-democratic means to prevent these candidates from coalescing within the Democratic Party.

All the while, the masses, including the working class, are paying attention to these anti-democratic actions and are living through a lesson on the class nature of the bourgeois Democratic Party. Lenin, affirming the need for intermediate forms of struggle as a school for the masses, states:

“But, needless to say, the masses learn from life and not from books …”^[14]

And further,

“One of the most profound causes that periodically gives rise to differences over tactics is the very growth of the labour movement. If this movement is not measured by the criterion of some fantastic ideal, but is regarded as the practical movement of ordinary people, it will be clear that the enlistment of larger and larger numbers of new “recruits”, the attraction of new sections of the working people must inevitably be accompanied by waverings in the sphere of theory and tactics, by repetitions of old mistakes, by a temporary reversion to antiquated views and antiquated methods, and so forth. The labor movement of every country periodically spends a varying amount of energy, attention, and time on the “training” of recruits.”

History has shown that the progressive-center forces will gravitate to the reactionary forces in the event that the left cannot break away from its sectarianism. The bourgeois political machine will spare no efforts in blocking any lasting progressive reforms and the center forces will make compromises with the bourgeoisie. This is why the Communists need to work within the Anti-Monopoly Coalition to pull the masses away from the right and answer the burning needs of the working class.

On this point, Comrade Henry Winston states:

“The aim of monopoly is to force a reversal of every aspect of bourgeois democracy, limited as it is, in order to open the way for fascism. The aim of the anti-monopoly program, as advocated by the Communist Party [PCUSA], is to bring about a strategic breakthrough to a deeper and wider degree of democracy…”^[15] Initially, the Anti-Monopoly Coalition will be led by the petty-bourgeoisie. However, this class being unstable, will eventually turn towards capitulation with the monopolists. Therefore, the working class and the Communists, with their consistent ideology, must struggle to take leadership.

[1] Hall, Gus, Working Class USA; International Publishers: New York, 1987, p. 159.

^[2] Hall, Gus, Capitalism on the Skids to Oblivion – the People’s Struggle for a New Beginning; New Outlook Publishers: New York, 1972, p. 42.

^[3] Hall, Gus, Imperialism Today; International Publishers: New York, 1972, p. 367.

^[4] Ibid., p. 367.

^[5] Hall, Op. Cit., 1987, p. 164.

^[6] Winston, Henry, Class, Race, and Black Liberation; International Publishers: New York, 1977, p. 164.

^[7] Lenin, Vladimir, Collected Works; Vol. V, Progress Publishers: Moscow, 1960, p. 188-189.

^[8] Stalin, Joseph & Wells, H.G., Marxism Versus Liberalism, New Century Publishers: New York, 1945.

^[9] Hall, Op. Cit., 1972, p. 46.

^[10] https://partyofcommunistsusa.net/program/

^[11] Hall, Op. Cit., p. 46.

^[12] Cifone, S.M., “Misleaders of Labor Coalesce Behind Cuomo as Rank-and-File Shifts Leftward”, Labor Today.

^[13] Lenin, V.I., “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder; New Outlook Publishers: Seattle, 2022, pp. 55-56.

^[14] Lenin, V.I., “Differences in the European Labour Movement”; Progress Publishers: Moscow, 1974

^[15] Winston, Henry, Selected Works of Henry Winston, Vol. 2; New Outlook Publishers: Seattle, 2024, p. 203.

From 2016 to the present our Party has been involved in movements warning the American people of the fascist developments taking place in American politics. Since the Counter-Revolution in the Soviet Union in 1991, elements within both the Republican and Democratic Parties have shifted gradually to the Right. From a “whiff of fascism” which emerged during the Ronald Reagan years, the onslaught of the most rabid sections of monopoly capital have developed into a stench of fascism.

In 1926, Comrade Joseph Stalin forewarned the world “[that] if Capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets, there would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost.”[1]

As we previously explained, Trump’s first Administration was in reality a test run in setting the groundwork for the eventual implementation of Project 2025 and destroying the last remnants of Roosevelt’s New Deal. It was during his first term, that Trump focused on stacking the Supreme Court with loyal justices that would rubber stamp his reactionary domestic executive orders.

Toward the end of Trump’s first Administration, the Party of Communists USA correctly analyzed the future direction of Trump’s MAGA movement.

The PCUSA’s public statements outline this direction.

I. January 6, 2021 – Capitol Hill Putsch

On January 6^th, 2021, the day that Congress was set to ratify the results of the 2020 election, a far-right mob descended upon the Capitol, with the explicit goal to conduct a coup in support of Donald Trump. This mob, consisting of supporters of failed movements, such as the Confederacy, South Vietnam, and other anti-communist reactionaries, came together to support this anti-democratic, fascistic goal to install a reactionary dictatorship.

There was very little resistance from the Capitol Police; however, once the mob reached the chamber’s doors, there was a limited armed stand-off, which resulted in the death of one of the far-right protesters. Despite this fact, it is quite clear that there was collusion between the fascistic forces and the Capitol Police. Police were seen interacting with the protesters in a friendly manner, taking pictures with them, shaking their hands, and even opening the gate for them. It is impossible for the police and the military to be unaware of a planned mass protest at the center of the Federal Government. How else could it be that for almost four hours, and the mob be allowed to ransack the Senate and House chambers? Despite the mayor of Washington D.C.’s request to send in the National Guard, days before the protest, it was refused. It is more than suspicious that the request for the National Guard to be sent in was refused; it is a clear sign of collaboration between the police and the far-right mob.

In response to the mob’s attack, President-Elect Joe Biden stated, “our democracy is under unprecedented assault” and called on Donald Trump to call for the protesters’ immediate dispersal on national television. This milquetoast response was an embarrassment, and it is unimaginable for the President-Elect to not call for the arrest of those behind this attempted coup. If these had been Black Lives Matter, peace, or communist, protesters they would have, at best, been arrested before they even reached the steps of the Capitol. More likely than not, they would have been shot. Black protesters would most certainly have suffered a worse fate.

Why did this insurrection happen now? After 250 years of this country’s history, why are we only experiencing a situation such as this now? What has transpired is a result of capitalist decay; our economic and political system has failed to adequately address the global pandemic that has accelerated our economic decline. The ruling class has run out of ways to continue to extract profit from working people, with neoliberal reforms resulting in a decades long decline in the working class’ quality of life and ever-rising unemployment. Only a united working class has the capability to make drastic social change because of their relationship to the means of production –factories, natural resources, and the labor force itself.

II. January 2025 — Trump’s Inaugural “Decree”

“My proudest legacy will be that of a Peacemaker and Unifier.”

–President Trump at his Inaugural Address, January 20, 2025

Only days into his second term, rather than be a Peacemaker, Trump has created new conflicts where previously none had existed. Trump declared that the United States would annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. Along the way, one of his executive orders included the immediate renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. In addition, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Trump wants to be a Unifier – but for whom? Unification normally means inclusivity. Trump has declared that all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs are to end immediately. Federal employees have already received notices in their workplaces based off of this executive order, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs […].” DEI programs include affirmative actions programs, which have historically been supported by progressives Americans since 1961, when President Kennedy issue Executive Order 10925 calling for affirmative action in federal hiring.

Trump’s unification is only a unification of the capitalist class represented by multi-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and the proposed members of Trump’s Cabinet, signaling a more open dictatorship of the capitalist class.

Many of Trump’s executive actions amount to an attempt to reduce the role of the federal government and shift the responsibility to individual states and the question of states’ rights. These actions include calling for the abolition of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as supporting Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education, who has publicly stated her intent to abolish the Department of Education and defund public schools.

Furthermore, Trump thanked Hispanics for their support during the election, but then turned around and immediately closed all American asylum refugee processing centers in Latin America. He has declared his goal to be the deportation of up to 11 million undocumented workers and the removal of birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution.

Trump stated that he will remove the onerous censorship that he and others have experienced over the last four years. In reality, Trump is now reacting to progressive thought by threatening to pull funding from schools which teach subjects such as Critical Race Theory. At the same time, he is supporting the anti-Communist Crucial Communism Teaching Act, alongside other things.

This statement only scratches the surface of the contradictions between Trump’s Executive Orders and his stated goals of Peace and Unity.

Secretariat,
Central Committee of Party of Communists USA

III. March 2025 — Development of Fascism in America under Trump

Two months into Trump’s second term, what was originally a “whiff of fascism” has now become a “stench.”

Historically, the Communist movement has identified two major indications which signal the emergence of fascism: 1) the suppression of the trade union movement, and 2) the suppression of the Communist movement.

With respect to the trade union movement, Trump wasted no time in dismantling the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which adjudicates issues of organized labor at the national level. This was done by firing the leading members of the NLRB, to the point where it no longer was able to form a quorum, and thus was unable to pass any decisions. Now, through court order, only one member, Gwynne Wilcox, has been reinstated. The general counsel was not reinstated, and Trump’s pick for their replacement, Crystal Carey, is a partner at the notorious union-busting law firm Morgan Lewis. Furthermore, Trump has appealed the decision to reinstate Wilcox. His appeal has the potential to go to the Supreme Court, which is hostile to the interests of labor.

Furthermore, Trump has, through Executive Orders, nullified the Collective Bargaining Agreements which were reached with federal government unions prior to his presidency. Through the actions of the “Department of Government Efficiency”, his administration, with the help of monopoly capitalists like Elon Musk, has sought to terminate the employment of as many federal government workers as possible. These terminations result in reduced dues payments to the government unions, thus weakening them further. Now, there is a bill being advanced through the Senate to ban Federal employees from organizing unions altogether.

In terms of the Communist movement, the Trump administration has not given it much focus per se because of its lack of prominence in the United States today. However, in his view, liberalism is Communism, and this he has attacked. These attacks have manifested as portraying liberals as “Marxian leftists”, enemies, and traitors. Project 2025, which is the playbook of the second Trump administration, states the following in its introduction: “The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before.” Furthermore, Project 2025 makes it its goal to “Eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.” Thus, from Trump’s own point of view, he is doing everything he can to attack this so-called “Marxist” movement.

Finally, as the Trump administration proceeds to dismantle the American economy through measures such as tariffs, and as the hegemony of American imperialism collapses abroad, the familiar tactic of scapegoating oppressed minorities has become prominent. Within a few short months, there has been an explosion of anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-DEI (which is a dogwhistle for anti-LGBT+ and racism), anti-immigrant, anti-liberal, and anti-science behavior among those in positions of power within our country. This behavior has ranged from hateful rhetoric, to oppressive legislation and actions. These are age-old tactics which fascists use to divide people and prevent the formation of a coherent resistance movement against their power. All progressive Americans must continuously fight against these tactics, because they will never cease so long as the capitalist system is in place. Americans must understand that the drive of fascism is not one of abstract totalitarianism, but rather it should be seen as a concrete expression of the will of corporate America and the military-industrial complex, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to suppress democratic institutions.

[1] Stalin, J.V., “Once More on the Social-Democratic Deviation in Our Party”, Works, Vol. 9; Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow, 1954, pp. 28-29.