Second Sen Katayama School of the PCM: What Our Comrades Learned

In December 2024, comrades of the Communist Workers’ Platform USA attended the second binational school named after Sen Katayama and hosted by the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM). The topics covered the critical understandings needed to reorganize the Communist Party in the United States. The school’s lecture and Q&A structure provided us with an informative and extensive overview of these subjects. Below is a brief summary of each of the seminars.  

Dialectical Materialism & Historical Materialism

The PCM prepared a considerable overview of the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism: dialectical and historical materialism. In order to understand the development of history, to predict the progression of history, and in order to use Marxism as a practical tool to change history in our favor; that is, for the emancipation of the working class —- understanding and applying dialectical materialism is essential. To be a Marxist and to be for working-class liberation requires a dialectical analysis of the world around us. 

The development of society is inevitable, whether or not we yield a stake in changing it. However, the inevitability of society's reorganization does not necessarily mean that it will be beneficial or alleviate the class character of society. This is where the question of the party becomes operative. Without the party, there is no revolution to overthrow the capitalist system and carve the path towards the elimination of class society . The ideological foundation that drives not only the study of the historical progression of society through class struggle, but uses the scientific laws that drive inevitable clashes of contradictions as a tool to reach a point of revolution is essential. Marxism-Leninism is the materialist current of history that must be undertaken by the leading party as a practical guide for the working class; it is not an invention attributed to an individual — but rather the science of constructing a new society, of building socialism as a bridge to communism.

Political Economy  

Political economy is the science of the conditions and forms under which human societies have produced and exchanged and under which they have distributed the products. It is the science of the developing historical systems of social production whose ultimate aim is to lay bare the economic law of motion of society. It is the application of dialectical and historical materialism to analyze the laws of the capitalist mode of production. 

Circulation is  the means by which distribution, exchange, consumption, and production are interconnected. Although production and distribution are dialectically related, production is primary. Notably, production is inherently social.

The various bourgeois economic schools of thought argue that economic laws cannot be discerned, however, since political economy is a science, it reveals the true nature of class relations. Through abstraction, categories are developed using the inductive method - from the concrete to the abstract. Capitalism reveals itself in the commodity, as examined by Marx in the first volume of Capital, which progresses from the simple to the complex, and vice versa.

A commodity’s use value arises from a social need, shaped by historical development. It is a historical category subject to change. Value, in simple terms, is socially necessary labor time distributed across the units produced. Labor is the measure of value. Value appears as price and even money has a price expressed in interest. Value and price deviates due to competition. Commodities have a use-value and a value. Without one or the other, it cannot be a commodity. Commodities are something to be produced in a market for exchange with a value, they are a kernel of capitalism. Within capitalism, selling enables buying, as commodities are produced specifically to be sold and used by others. The precondition for commodities is a division of labor. However, not all useful things possess value.

The value of a commodity is expressed in relation to other commodities, through the general equivalent which leads to money. Commodities are exchanged for equal value within systems such as simple barter or more developed forms of barter. Exchange value exists in two forms: simple and developed. The basic circuit of exchange is represented as Commodity (C) – Money (M) – Commodity (C). Money in this circuit is a means of exchange but money can also be used for other things such as expressing the value of things. Exchange of money is not capital. Capital is value to obtain more value, money to obtain more money.

Productive work generates new value, wealth etc. Surplus value is new value created through the productive process. Absolute surplus value increases by extending the workday, while relative surplus value decreases the necessary labor time with a corresponding increase in surplus labor-time through automation and technological advancements. We can use measurements like working hours per year as a good example of absolute/relative surplus value extraction. 

The law of accumulation, a definite law of capitalism, describes the amassing of great wealth through extended reproduction. Reproduction in capitalism takes two forms: simple and extended reproduction. The accumulation of capital is the source of extended reproduction. Simple reproduction describes the act of which surplus value is converted back into production with no expansion of constant or variable capital. 

The proportion of variable capital to constant capital is what is known as the organic composition of capital. 

Capital consists of two parts: variable capital, which is invested in labor power (e.g., wages), and constant capital, which includes assets like machinery and buildings that do not increase in value. Capital can be money, means of production, or labor power. Labor power itself is a commodity sold by workers in exchange for wages.

The rate of profit (how much the capitalist makes) is calculated as surplus value divided by capital (constant + variable), while total value is the sum of constant capital, variable capital, and surplus value. Surplus value appears as profit. There is no profit without surplus value. 

The rate of exploitation/surplus (how much the capitalist exploits us) is calculated as surplus value divided by variable capital. 

Industrial capital focuses on production, whereas the process of circulation includes all those processes that contribute to the realization of the value of the goods but are not absolutely necessary for the production and provision of goods. The circulation process is a cost for the capitalist and includes buying and selling time, storage costs, and part of the transportation costs. The circulation process does not produce the commodity and cannot add value to it since value is created exclusively in the sphere of production. The capitalist process of production depends on circulation, on commerce. Here we see processes such as merchants advancing capital (merchant capital) to the industrialists and realizing surplus value, banks moving money and allocating it as well as trading money as a commodity, with interest representing its price. There arises a division of capital. Banks are also needed to move around all the “stuck” capital and loans aid by transforming money into capital.

Imperialism 

The highest stage of capitalism is characterized fundamentally by the fact that it is rotting but with latent characteristics of socialism. It is rotting and parasitic because capitalism is no longer progressive, it does nothing for the progress of the great majority of people. For example, around 50 years ago electric vehicles were able to be produced. 

Monopoly capital and control intensifies and expands as capital becomes concentrated and centralized, not within a single capitalist but among many. In other words, this stage sees the proliferation of the collective property of capitalists. We see collective entities - monopolies - that exploit the entire working class and compete within international spheres. 

Concentration occurs via the expansion of capital through the accumulation of surplus value. Centralization, on the other hand, refers to the consolidation of existing but separately accumulating capital into units and under the command of a smaller number of capitalists. For example, the merging of capital into several enterprises and the subsequent rise of cartels and trusts. 

In a market economy, competition tends to culminate in monopolies, illustrating the dialectical process of the negation of the negation. These monopolies further solidify capitalist dominance. Finance capital emerges from the merging of banking capital with industrial capital, creating a powerful synergy that drives imperialist ambitions.

When capitalism exhausts domestic markets, it seeks growth by exporting capital to other markets, particularly underdeveloped ones, where there is greater room for exploitation and profit. Imperialism, therefore, can be understood as the domination by monopolies of global markets and the redivision of the world among capitalist powers. 

Economism, Political Agitation, and Propaganda

When regarding the history of the trade union movement in both Mexico and the United States, we discussed several key issues prevalent in both countries and the faults of the trade union movement in relation to economism. It is true that so long as capitalism exists, the existence of a mechanism to expose and even bargain their conditions with their employer will always be important to the worker. Exposing and reforming conditions within a workplace has always been an important lever in economic struggle and it serves as a starting point for the awakening of class-consciousness. However, exposing the abuses and exploitative nature of their working conditions to the worker is only the start of political consciousness. The worker must connect the politics in their workplace to the overall political-economic system of capitalism. 

So how is political education of the worker beyond working conditions achieved? Of course, it is not enough to simply explain to the worker that they are politically oppressed, the same way that it is not enough to explain to the worker that they are economically oppressed by their employer. Workers, on their own, will only reach union consciousness. The vanguard party’s role is to intervene and break through when a revolutionary crisis is present, and to inject scientific socialism as a basis for analysis in not only their working conditions but on every front of a working person’s life. That is, the exposure of political oppression in their family life, personal life, religious life, civic life, etc., — getting workers to question why their conditions are what they are both in the workplace and in every sphere of their life outside of it. Connecting the particular to the general. Political agitation is not conducted through eloquent phrases or sermons, but translating the concrete issues of the masses into the general struggle for revolution and seizure of power. In order to be a proper agitator of the masses, the communist strategy is to thoroughly know and study a topic on which we want to speak on, and anchor  it in the Marxist-Leninist worldview. We must become experts in federal and state labor laws in order to give correct political orientation to the working-class. We must have the courage to say the truth and the ideological clarity to do so. If the party can correctly orient workers — becoming references of the law and of a political orientation — then the party will have critical influence amongst the working class.

The Situation of the International Communist Movement

We studied the current conditions of the communist movement with respect to the foundations laid by the Soviet Union and the history that followed its counterrevolution and dissolution of the Communist International. It's clear that, before the 1950s, the USSR was developing a new mode of production with its characteristic new superstructure, consciousness, culture, and social relations. In the 1930s, the rise of fascism presented a new set of challenges.

Over a series of Congresses in the 1920s and 30s, discussions of fascism continued and culminated in the 7th Congress, where the Comintern  developed a definition of fascism. Following the destruction of the KPD in Germany at the hands of the new Nazi government, the  Seventh World Congress focused on this impending question, and cited G. Dimitrov’s report of fascism as being the “open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinist, and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” Under these pretenses, the previous strategic focus on revolutionary struggle for a dictatorship of the proletariat was replaced by a new approach: The Popular Front Against War and Fascism. 

This shift has since shaped the national and international policies of the global communist movement. The Comintern and the Communist Party of Germany (among others) adopted the popular front strategy, which advocated for uniting with social democrats and other anti-fascist forces and ultimately detached fascism from its innate roots within the capitalist system altogether. This strategy and set of alliances led to the defeat of the development of the communist movement worldwide, assassinations of communist leaders, and aggrandized the role of social democrats as the protectors of capitalist administration. 

The 20th and 22nd Congresses of the Soviet Communist Party marked a decisive shift away from the Bolshevik model of proletarian revolution. These congresses advocated for “peaceful coexistence” between capitalism and socialism and the beginning of a re-introduction of market relations in the Soviet Union. The PCM lectures stressed the urgency in rectifying the mistakes of the popular front and particularly Earl Browder’s influence in changing the course of the CPUSA and prescribing erroneous decisions in the pursuit of defeating fascism.

Browderism had an international hold on communist parties. Browder was but a manifestation of the time, an early one, of such opportunism but with historical roots in the Popular Front. In stark opposition to Browderism, the Marxist-Leninist position of today understands the missteps in the 20th century that led to the massive setback of the international proletarian struggle. The comrades of Mexico underscored the urgency of the communist movement today, correctly positioning ourselves as a guide for the working masses in the fight against fascism—not as defenders of bourgeois democracy, but as revolutionary communists dedicated to overthrowing the capitalist system and advancing the cause of proletarian international socialism.

The Women’s Question

In order to truly address and emancipate women from the historical inequality that has been suffered and achieve a powerful international women’s movement, the theoretical basis for understanding the root cause of women’s oppression must be properly understood. Women’s oppression is not a congenital phenomenon that exists simply because of “inherent” differences between genders. The inequality that women suffer is inextricably linked to the mode of production. Given the position that women hold in the veritable reproduction of the labor force that maintains capitalism, the organization of society is determined by this fact. Social relations, modes of production, private property, and superstructure all interlink. It is not an inherent trait to discriminate or restrict the rights of individuals based on their gender, but is rather a product of the new organization of society under the division of labor and class exploitation as the basis for what Friedrich Engels cites as the “world historical defeat of the female sex.” 

Feminism lacks class analysis and posits an intrinsic division between the sexes, prescribing the political and social domination of men as the primary contradiction in society. In reality, past epochs of classless societies within the age of primitive communism placed women on an equal footing with men. When the mode of production changed, the sexual division of labor also affected the organization of the family structure and the domination of paternal rights. Economic relations under capitalism stressed the importance of the nuclear family – a household structure that nurtures and advances the constant reproduction of the labor force. Exploitation of surplus labor from the masses cannot exponentiate without the literal duplication of human labor. 

So-called “pro-women” legislation attempts to address this inequality, but the feminist outlook analyzes women’s oppression as a mutually exclusive phenomenon (patriarchy) that supersedes the root of all oppression – class struggle. Patriarchy is manifested as a more advanced contradiction than class; following this logic, however, the abolition of the former relies on the complete termination of the latter. Reforms of any nature under capitalism will invariably be unable to surmount the reality of class division and enact the emancipation of women; only through a proletarian revolution and a communist society will this be conceived. 

Message of Solidarity to the PCM

CWPUSA extends our immense respect, appreciation, and gratitude to the Communist Party of Mexico in providing us not only foundational tools for the development of our organization but a hospitality and camaraderie that was greatly valued by each of our comrades. Comrades in Mexico have set an everlasting impact on our task as communists and reinforcing the urgency behind the struggle waged in the United States. 

We can only reciprocate the attention, courtesy, and determination of the comrades in Mexico by assuring to you all that your efforts are not in vain! We, the Communist Workers’ Platform USA, commit to expressing our solidarity with the Communist Party of Mexico through both written expression and in dedicated action to build the communist party and smash the capitalist system.