Workers World Party, a communist party in the United States founded in 1959, held its national conference in the city of Newark, New Jersey, on November 18-19, 2017. The theme of the conference was “Smash white supremacy and capitalism! Fight for socialism!” The event was attended by more than 500 activists from across the United States, and the live video was watched by tens of thousands of people around the world.
The conference capped a year that has seen explosive growth in the radical movement and in the communist ranks, especially among young workers. This growth was spurred by the election of the right-wing oligarch Donald Trump as president of the imperialist empire and the emergence a violent neo-Nazi and white supremacist movement during his campaign. Underlying this development in the deepening crisis of capitalism in the U.S. and worldwide; the systems inability to provide young people with a future; and the ever-growing reliance of the ruling class on war abroad and repression at home, especially against nationally oppressed groups.
A special evening of solidarity and culture followed Saturdays conference sessions. In addition to poetry and musical performances, young comrades read messages of internationalist solidarity sent by revolutionary parties and movements from around the world, including the Workers Party of Korea, the Communist Party of Venezuela, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Communist Party of the Donetsk Peoples Republic, and many more. These messages were met with great enthusiasm and chants of “Hands off Korea, hands off Venezuela,” “Free, free Palestine,” and “Stop bombing Donbass, U.S. out of Ukraine!”
On its final day, the conference laid out plans to intensify party-building and mass work. Larry Holmes, First Secretary of Workers World Party, drew the comrades attention the upcoming 50th anniversary of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination. It was decided to launch a campaign to use this occasion to launch a mass campaign to defend immigrant workers, Muslims, Black people and other oppressed groups from the attacks of Trump and the U.S. ruling class.
