The following was a note shared by YCL organizer Aaron Booe to the 2024 graduates of the Little Red Schoolhouse, an annual 10-day summer Marxist school organized by the CPUSA.

Comrades,

It’s hard not to feel anxious right now. With Trump returning to the White House, Republicans controlling Congress, and a conservative Supreme Court, the MAGA movement is consolidating power. It feels like the start of a conservative counterrevolution fueled by racial backlash over issues like immigration and economic conditions like inflation. This is compounded by the wars abroad that divert resources away from people’s needs, allowing Trump to masquerade as the candidate that “kept us out of war.”

What we’re witnessing is the resurgence of “America First” ideology — a modern variant of fascism rooted in an old alliance of interests. This coalition unites middle-strata capitalists and small business owners (eg. car dealership owners, home contractors, etc.), with tech billionaires and crypto-libertarians like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Bezos. It also includes segments of the working-class with class, race, and gender based grievances. This isn’t necessarily a new development; it echoes the shift of the 1970s when the New Deal coalition fractured and was replaced by a pro-inequality, militaristic, anti-labor political order that helped elect Nixon and Reagan. That same alignment is resurfacing today in a new dangerous form.

But despite the grim reality, we must remind ourselves that the story isn’t over. Two competing visions for this country still remain. On one side, there’s the vision of monopoly capitalism, racial & gender hierarchies, and the consolidation of power among a few. On the other side, there’s the vision of a multiracial, working-class democracy that fights for equality, freedom, and justice for all. This is what makes the current moment so crucial; the future of this country — and our movement — depends on which vision prevails.

At times like this, it’s important to remember Lenin’s words: “It is far more difficult — and far more useful — to be a revolutionary when the conditions for direct, open, really mass and revolutionary struggle do not yet exist, to defend the interests of the revolution … in non-revolutionary bodies, in non-revolutionary circumstances, among the masses who are incapable of immediately appreciating the need for methods of action.”

This is where we find ourselves today: in difficult, uncertain times. But our fight is far from over; it’s just beginning. Now is the time to stay grounded in the struggle, to build relationships, and to prepare for what’s to come. Ultimately, it will be the struggle over the implementation of their fascist agenda that will determine the shape of things to come.

We’re still here, and so are you. We will keep fighting.

Image: CPUSA and YCL members march with the Poor People’s Campaign in DC by Taylor Dorrell / People’s World (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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