Buried in the New York Times´ rave review (by Phillip Maclak) of the superb series, Boots Riley’s “I’m a Virgo,” is this sentence: “Riley, himself an avowed communist, has always been an unabashedly political artist.” It’s refreshing to see the word “communist” used so casually. At the same time it reflects the weakness of the  US communist movement, no longer considered a threat, at least in the US neoliberal media. 

With the notable exceptions of China, Vietnam, Cuba and perhaps India, communist parties have become mere shadows of their former selves. Most leftists squirm at the use of the word. Between Stalin’s egregious excssses and Gorbachov/Yeltsin’s surrender of the USSR, the word and the vision have apparently been relegated to the dustbin of history, at least in the west. This is a tragedy that is largely responsible for the rise of the right all over the world, including the US. 

In its heyday, the Communist Party in the US was one of the most effective reform organizations ever. Largely through CP organizing, the Flint Sitdown Strike in particular, the US ruling class was forced to concede the 8 hour day, social security, minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and a host of other reforms that enabled a robust working class to emerge from World War II. In Europe as well, the strength of local CPs together with the power of the USSR helped create social democratic regimes throughout the region that only now are being dismantled. 

One of the things that made the communist movement more effective than other left configurations was its long-term vision of a classless society, of a world without exploitation of humans by humans. 

China is now the standard bearer for the communist movement, though many communists have attacked its trajectory as the capitalist road. By implementing Lenin’s New Economic Program (NEP: a collaboration between the Communist Party and capitalists to build the productive forces) on steroids, the CCP has developed its state capitalism into the strongest economy in the world. Whether China achieves socialism by 2050, as promised by Xi Jinping, and resumes the movement toward a classless society remains to be seen. My guess is that the success of its hybrid model will mitigate against the CCP’s efforts to dismantle capitalism, but whatever we think of the Chinese system, there’s little question that it prefigures the future. Personally, I remain agnostic, cautiously optimistic that the CCP is on, or close to, the right track. It’s the first time in recent history, at least since the Middle Ages, that a nonwhite people have dominated the world economy. 

We need to resurrect the vision of a classless society. As Graeber and Wengrow demonstrate in their groundbreaking The Dawn of Everything, hierarchical societies are not inevitable. The New York Times in collaboration with Boots Riley, have given us permission to use the word communism again. Let’s not go out and organize another rash of miniscule vanguard parties, okay? What we need to do is organize a worldwide consensus for a series of demands like Stop all wars, Save the earth, Share the wealth, as I’ve been advocating in my proposal for Occupy Earth.