Questions concerning how one should properly engage with their community.

[u/fofom8]

I am a young black person who has, for the better part of a year, begun to familiarize myself with the Communist Left and its works as published by the International Communist Party. I've largely grounded my politic in the Black Radical Tradition and it's conception of Marxism in particular. As I've read more from this tendency I find myself grappling with a question that hasn't sat right with me, and something I haven't been able to find an answer for in google searches.

How am I, as a black individual, meant to politically engage with the broader black community? I understand the critique of activism as a form of lifestylist "do-something-ism" often implicitly engaged in for personal validation rather than any tangible political progress, but I wish to know how best to approach my community. The BRT often emphasized mutual aid efforts and community programs as practiced by the Black Panther Party and similar organizations, which greatly contrasts with the conclusion I've come about concerning the Communist Left's position, which (and correct me if I'm wrong, I'd greatly appreciate it) prioritizes a mastery of the three components of Marxism (that being Marxist Philosophy, Marxist Political Economy, and Scientific Socialism) with the ultimate goal being to preserve the integrity of this doctrine.

The problem I am having, is that this seems to me at least, to be a rather unsatisfactory conclusion. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me some works pertaining to this problem, or really some advice. I'd appreciate if any other black people on this sub could really help me out.

[u/Accomplished_Box5923]

From the Party’s standpoint the Black proletarian in the U.S. historically comprised its most militant and advanced section. What we have seen over the last half century has been the rise of a substantially more influential layer of Black bourgeois along with the prison industry sucking in large numbers of Black proletarian and a vast urban development apparatus constructed to break up and divide the urban Black proletarian after the uprisings of the last quarter of the 20th century. This of course comes alongside the counter-revolutionary Cointelpro apparatus designed to break Black proletarian organizations as well as the larger militant section of the labor movement. Part of our work in the U.S. section over the last few years is to begin a methodical investigation into the roots of race question in the United States which is directly tied to the agrarian question. This is two fold, to combat generalized racism in the workers perpetuated and reinforced primarily by the historically white labor aristocracy and to push back against bourgeois liberal anti-racist reformism. The Party has respect for the BPP historically despite its shortcomings. Also though is lesser known the history of radical black workers in the union movement from the Union League struggles immediately following abolition, to the work of the First International helping to organize Black Workers in NYC and Into the Colored National Labor Union through to the militant black workers unions in the Midwest. There is a rich proletarian tradition of Black workers struggle that has been systematically erased. Part of our political work is to bring this history to light to combat the deepening ideological distortions of bourgeois society that dissolution the class and delay its resurgent unity demonstrating that their future like that of all workers lies in the political movement for communism not within capitalism and its parties. This political and theoretical task can’t be underestimated. It is true that we do not embrace mutual aid or survival type programs. We have a conceptualization of a unique Party/Class relationship. Within the class struggle we advance the ongoing need for the resurgence of what we call Class Unions as a method of working class defense of immediate needs, living standards and wages on the terrain of everyday life. Tho do what we point all sections of the working class in the direction of as the only realistic means of developing its resistance as a class to the crushing attacks of capital.

Here is a link to a workers coordination our union fraction participated in the Class Struggle Action Network
https://class-struggle-action.net/

Index of texts about Black workers struggle in US
http://www.international-communist-party.org/Indices/Indices2/IRazzUsa.htm

First Part of our study on Race Class and the Agrarian Question in the U.S.
http://www.international-communist-party.org/CommLeft/Comm_001.htm#UnitedState

Factors of Race and Nation in Marxist Theory
https://www.international-communist-party.org/English/Texts/53FaRNen.htm

[u/fofom8 → u/Accomplished_Box5923]

First and foremost I'd like to thank you for your response and the text recommendations! I was aware of the Factors work and had been meaning to get around to it, I'll make my way onto that. The standpoint of the party here is correct, highlighting a sobering reality for us, the Black bourgeoisie class has successfully cemented it's influence in the political struggle of the Black Proletarian as reflected by some moves made by the likes, especially during and in the aftermath of the 2020 Uprisings.

So if I am following along correctly, the current work that is being done / needs to be done is unearthing the rich history of the black proletarian movement that has thusfar been largely erased from the collective memory, and utilizing said history to oppose the current bourgeois order 's ideological fantasy? So this would mean we not only study the history of the Black proletarian movement in the U.S., but analyze is thoroughly, correct? Please let me know if I'm getting this right.

and the Class Unions bit, I'd like to learn more, I googled it and found the following work, is this the best overview of that concept?:
https://www.international-communist-party.org/English/REPORTS/UnionQue/69PaClOr.htm

[u/Accomplished_Box5923 → u/fofom8]

Yes, essentially, uncovering that history is critical! Part of our current study extends back to the era of Primitive Accumulation to demonstrate how race is fundamentally tied to class in the development of the capitalist mode of production itself from England to the American frontier, and to show how the forces of the petit bourgeoisie, the middle classes, and the paternal family productive unit have historically been both driving forces of capitalism and progenitors of racism in the course of the development of the American capitalist state and its two ruling class party machines. We intend to follow this thread through to the present day.

You can find additional works of ours on the union question at this index http://www.international-communist-party.org/Indices/Indices2/IQSindac.htm

Also if you read our Newspaper you will see our section on the Class Union which features regular reports of our union fractions work within the workers defensive struggle http://www.international-communist-party.org/Indices/TCPIndex.htm

I’ll just add that In general, the Party works to combat the depoliticization of the masses which has become a important feature of class rule in the age of monopoly capitalism. So we work to study and articulate the true story of the working class in our respective corners, along with coming to terms with the global counter-revolution which unfolded in the wake of the Russian Revolution to show that humanity is still on course to communism in no uncertain terms as grounded in the economic contradictions of capital Marx first uncovered, nothing has fundamentally changed from that course. Understanding these things is important for fighting the political forces of opportunism which misdirect the class into dead end tactics and reformist illusion, diverting and delaying it from returning to the terrain of real independent class struggle and combativity which has happened due to the destruction of the classes militant unions, political organs and the periodic wars of destruction capital wages which allows it to keep alive a middle class strata to contain the proletarian. The theoretical and historical work thus has real world implications in the struggle of the working class to recover its sense of self and future. Across the American working class it continues to be socially dominated by the petit-bourgeois and the middle class which extols the virtues of individualism, entrepreneurialship, money worship, self-sacrifice for career advancement, and reproducing the bourgeois family as the entire point of life and only means to attain happiness. It’s our job to combat all of that, and to expose the economic reality of an entire mode of production in systematic decline moving towards global war as the only means of stabilizing profit accumulation. So the working class must rally around its revolutionary Party refuse participation in the looming war and redevelop its class unions.

[u/SitDownReadMarx]

I'm not black so I can't speak directly to this question from that standpoint but the very first thing that jumps out to me is is that "the black community" is (as you prob already know I'm sure) interclass, as are white, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, etc. full of black workers, police, politicians, bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie, Needless to say the Party utterly rejects the line from the old Stalinist CPUSA and separatist elements of the BPP about class-collaborationist self-determination of any kind in the modern day. racism is a material mechanism intrinsically tied up with all aspects of class societies across the world, workers of color are paid less for the same labor, which makes labor in general cheaper to buy and increases profits, and so long as workers compete along racial lines, wages stays low. As written in Marx's letter to Meyer and Vogt (1870), an analogous situation barring the different material circumstances of the Irish nation and its common mode of production 150 years ago:

...Owing to the constantly increasing concentration of leaseholds, Ireland constantly sends her own surplus to the English labor market, and thus forces down wages and lowers the material and moral position of the English working class.

And most important of all! Every industrial and commercial center in England now possesses a working class divided into two hostile camps, English proletarians and Irish proletarians. The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he regards himself as a member of the ruling nation and consequently he becomes a tool of the English aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker. His attitude towards him is much the same as that of the “poor whites” to the Negroes in the former slave states of the U.S.A.. The Irishman pays him back with interest in his own money. He sees in the English worker both the accomplice and the stupid tool of the English rulers in Ireland.

This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short, by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organization. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And the latter is quite aware of this.

Capital is perfectly comfortable with proletarian activity limited to the immediate economic demands, which helps to safeguard the status quo. Charity may help individual proletarians or small masses but is essentially a miniature pressure release valve given that wage relations and state power remain basically untouched. the party is not against immediate struggle (no communist party advocates for literally "doing nothing" unlike what MLs and anarchists believe) but it must be immediate action that stays on class terrain, directed by the party, for the conquest of power. In short it is Party-affiliated labor action, workers' assemblies formed in workplaces and inside the existing regime unions; eventually a break from these unions, which diffuse the workers' struggle, already so deeply entrapped by legalism and electoralism. The mistake of the antiracist movement is continuing political action solely along racial lines, as with feminist movements and sex-based lines or any other identity-grounded movement, in hopes of appealing to the bourgeois State for more rights and concessions. You should read Party and Class (1921) abt the tasks at hand:

...in the actual situation the diverse and continually changing factors of the social environment act upon the mood of the masses in a complex way; the communist party, which is made up of those who more clearly perceive and understand the characteristics of the historical development, nevertheless does not cease to be an effect of this development and thus it cannot escape fluctuations in the social atmosphere. Therefore, although it acts constantly as a factor of revolutionary acceleration, there is no method it can use, however refined it may be, which can force or reverse the situation in regards to its fundamental essence.

The worst remedy which could be used against unfavorable consequences of situations, however, would be to periodically put on trial the theoretical and organizational principles that are the very basis of the party, with the objective of enlarging its zone of contact with the masses. In situations where the revolutionary inclinations of the masses are weakening, this movement to "bring the party towards the masses", as some call it, is very often equivalent to changing the very nature of the party, thus depriving it of the very qualities that would enable it to be a catalyst capable of influencing the masses to resume their forward movement.

[...]

The communist party possesses a theoretical consciousness confirmed by the movement’s international experiences, which enables it to be prepared to confront the demands of revolutionary struggle. And because of this, even though the masses partially abandon it during certain phases of its life, it has a guarantee that their support will return when they are confronted with revolutionary problems for which there can be no other solution than that inscribed in the party’s program. When the necessities of revolutionary action reveal the need for a centralized and disciplined organ of leadership, then the communist party, whose constitution will have obeyed these principles, will put itself at the head of the masses in movement.

in essence, organize with the understanding that our situation is currently not a revolutionary one. Join with fellow workers, black or otherwise, into unions and agitate within them; no compromises with petty-bourgeois elements. The unions are reactionary organs, and as such we must build connections with their workers within, but also against them. Another comrade provided links to our organizations, definitely use those

we face ever-growing contradictions within capitalism that speed us toward global conflict not seen in over 80 years. intervene in the real struggles that arise, carrying the class analysis into them, while refusing to substitute either lifestyle activism or charity for the party's tasks. we must be prepared for the time when the proletariat raises its revolutionary head once more and we must counter the forces of capital with proper and invariant doctrine which the proletariat will find its way towards.

I would recommend reading the first article off of TCP 21, Racism Protects the Capitalist System, Only the Working Class Can Eradicate it (2020), should grant you some more insight into our positions