It is peculiar – maybe there’s a better word – to characterize the silence in some left and communist circles when it comes to the centralization of power and decision making in the hands of the top layers of the CP of China and its leader. If the struggle for democracy is pivotal to the transition of capitalism to socialism, why isn’t it equally pivotal to its consolidation and maturation? Shouldn’t the gravediggers of capitalism be the principal builders and design makers of a new socialist society? To be sure, parties of the left, I would think, would play an essential role in assisting and guiding this complicated process – a process that is mass in character and should turn on the deepening of democracy. But they shouldn’t substitute for it.

Which brings me back to China. From a distance it appears that the political centralization of the decision making process on the part of the CPC is the norm, taking the place of broad scale democratic participation across society at the conceptual and practical level of building socialism. And yet, for some on the left and the communist movement that isn’t something that is of concern to them. It should be if they have learned anything from the past.

A May Day remembrance of George Meyers, Chair of the Labor Department of the Communist Party for 3 decades. His wise council, infectious laugh, genuine modesty, expansive politics, and humanity earned him the respect of all who had the privilege of working with him. George, you’re missed and your insistence on left-center unity in the labor movement has lost none of its relevance.

When I hear a communist who prides himself on his cutting edge thinking, internationalism, and militancy singularly hang the implosion of the former Soviet Union on the shoulders of Gorbachev and his right opportunism, as I did yesterday, I can only conclude that he isn’t quite as keen a thinker as he would like us to think.

It is hard to imagine how this resolution could pass at the DSA convention. The opposition against it, “looking at the handy guide,” will be organized and zealous. As for the resolution’s content, I like its spirit, but it suffers from formalism in my opinion. A people’s front (or as I prefer coalition) doesn’t need inventing; it’s already a reality and has scored electoral successes against the MAGA movement going back to the 2018 midterms.

The challenge, therefore, for progressives and the realistic left is to deepen and extend this coalition in the lead up to next year’s election. At its center is President Biden and the Democratic Party. While that is anathema to some on the left, serious politics isn’t fanciful. To the contrary, it’s concrete and grounded in a strictly sober look at the balance of political and social power as well as the elaboration of the class and social constituencies that possess the capacity to stay the hand and decisively defeat the main threat to social progress, while moving the needle in a democratic and progressive direction. And in present circumstances, Biden and Democrats are on the ground floor of this coalition whose overarching task is to bring MAGA to its knees. They aren’t alone, but to act as if they aren’t serves no good purpose.

Watching Knicks-Cavs game at Bronx Ale House. Place going crazy!!!