The transition to graduate school in 1967 wasn’t easy. I had previously attended a large public university in a pastoral setting. Living with others in a somewhat tumultuous dorm wasn’t all that different from, at times, chaotic family life. Anyway, my roommate was a high school friend. I was in a strange, big city, living in a one-room apartment. But it wasn’t just my geographic setting.
A high school buddy was killed in the U.S. war in Vietnam.
1968 came quickly. I was drafted into the military. My sister helped me beat that back by finding me a draft-deferred grade school teaching job. Still, it gnawed at me. I wanted to do something about the bloodletting in Southeast Asia. But what?
At the small public college I attended, the opportunity arose to participate in an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. I jumped at the chance. (Side note: I would find out decades later that the Young Communist League organized the night classes at this university back in the 1930s.)
The march in Washington helped, as up to this point I only thought of my own rear end and U.S. troops. Marchers learned that Vietnamese, including young, old, and at times entire families, were being killed in the hundreds of thousands.
Running parallel to all this was the 1968 presidential election. Politics just were not part of my family’s supper-time discussions. President Lyndon Johnson––with a growing anti-war movement led by youth at his doorstep––had dropped out of the race in the spring. Vice President Hubert Humphrey would take his place and run against Republican nominee Richard Nixon. Dixiecrat George Wallace of the Independent Party was stoking racist fires wherever he campaigned. There were also some other little-known progressive candidates.
After the 1968 march in D.C., there was much discussion on the bus returning home. Some thought elections were not important. Others said Humphrey would be just as bad as Johnson since both were glued to anti-communism. Still others pushed the idea that Nixon would make the situation worse both at home and in Vietnam. And in the opinion of a few, a “worse the better” scenario would lead to revolution and stop the war. I found it all very confusing.
Nixon went on to narrowly win the popular vote, 31.8 million to 31.3 million. He handily won the electoral vote by 110 votes. And things did get worse, much worse.
U.S. troops and Vietnamese, the latter in the millions, continued dying. But there was no revolution here at home, and the war continued. I was encouraged by some friends to read The Communist Manifesto. I tried but could not understand the terminology. What was the buggywase?
Victor Perlo’s pamphlet Marines In Santo Domingo! (1965), by contrast, was understandable to me. I joined the group Science for the People. My hometown friends later led me to the Young Workers Liberation League (YWLL) and the Communist Party. Then, a sense of calm and thinking long term settled my angst.
End of story? Not by a long shot.
Now, it’s 2024. There is the Ukraine/Russia/NATO proxy war. Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza. It appears that nothing has changed. Yet, the reality is that everything has changed.
Eleven socialist countries are gone. Socialism’s birthplace––the Soviet Union––is gone. The balance of forces has shifted in favor of capitalism and imperialism. This has meant dire consequences for Iraq, Afghanistan, and––in different but still deadly ways––for Global South nations.
How similar is the approaching election of Vice President Kamala Harris versus former President Donald Trump to Nixon versus Humphrey? President Biden dropped out of the race amid a growing peace movement led by youth and passed the nomination to Harris. There are also little-known independent candidates. But the similarity is an illusion.
There is a mass fascist movement in our country today that is largely united around Trump. Charlottesville in 2017 and the coup attempt at the Capitol in 2021 put that on full display. In Trump, the extreme right has its standard-bearer, and he uses racism at every venue. In 1968, the segregationist George Wallace’s independent campaign got almost 10 million votes in the South—not a small feat. But in 2020, Trump got more than 74 million plus, and his support is spread throughout the country.
From 1968 to 2024, the steady drumbeat of anti-communism continues. Abroad, it kills outright, as it did in Indonesia (1965) and Chile (1973). The Uyghurs, who are Muslim, are being used to project anti-socialism and demonize China. Democracy, especially the role of the working class and unions in it, is almost always the internal target of anti-communism here in the U.S.
But neither the planet nor politics remain static. While the dominant political direction may appear to be to the right, tendencies always have their countertendencies—that’s the nature of contradiction. Socialist China has emerged as a major power. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) are a formidable bloc, with other countries joining them. Union, climate change, Black Lives Matter, women’s, and LGBTQ struggles have brought millions to progressive activity.
Special attention must be given to the Muslim community on all issues, especially Gaza and Iran. Harris’s statement supporting Palestinian sovereignty can be a point of departure for building unity. However, making more progress will involve working both inside and outside existing political structures.
There is one tried and tested way to fight against fascism and build unity in this election: Circulate People’s World articles among co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Select a concentration area to work with allies. A good slogan could be “Go door-to-door to win in ’24.”
Let’s work with the widest unity, stem the fascist tide, and win the space for a revolutionary, socialist tomorrow.
As with all op-ed articles published by People’s World, the views represented here are those of the author.
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