October 1, 2024 marked the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. As the University of the Poor we call attention to the fact that the poor and dispossessed of the US and the Chinese people face a common enemy. We confront Global Capital and a US state apparatus which serves as an instrument of Global Capital. We encourage the emerging leaders of the organized poor in the US to use the opportunity of this anniversary to study the sustained and strategic struggle of the Chinese people and the profound accomplishments their struggle has made possible.
As our concept paper states, the “mission of the University of the Poor is to systematically identify and develop leaders committed to the unity of the poor and dispossessed across color lines and other lines of division so as to build a broad-based and powerful movement to end poverty.” The University of the Poor is dedicated to this revolutionary task in both “thought and action, globally and domestically.” Our principal task at the moment is to develop the unity, organization, and sophistication of revolutionary leaders who are arising out of the emerging struggles of the poor and dispossessed masses in the U.S. We seek to learn lessons from other revolutionary organizations across the globe and across history. In line with that, we study the ongoing revolutionary process in China and the role of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in that struggle.
For our work in the U.S. we see the emphasis placed on using Marxism as a powerful tool of analysis and a guide to action and not a rigid dogma – we aim to advance a version of Socialism with U.S. characteristics learning from the application of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics developed by the CPC.
We see the priority placed on cadre development and deployment in China. From 13 participants at its first gathering in 1921 to approaching 100 million members, the CPC has built a cadre organization with mass scale. From building organizations among the workers and peasant masses to teaching and strengthening them along the 6,000 mile route of the historic and heroic Long March, teaching the poor basic literacy while at the same time introducing Marxist ideas; to conducting Party Schools supplemented by innovative app-based political education for party members. Party members are now committed to an ongoing study of revolutionary theory of Marxism as well as the most pressing concerns from EVs and microchips to agriculture and Green development to advance the largest nation on earth.
We see a consistent commitment to common prosperity and meeting the needs of the poorest members of society, from land redistribution to strategic joint-venture driven foreign direct investment and the elimination of extreme poverty. The massive sacrifices that the CPC and its cadre made in eliminating poverty demonstrates their long term strategic focus and commitment. Revolutionaries around the US will all also need strategic focus and commitment in order to move beyond capitalism and build socialism, abolishing all poverty and uplifting human dignity.
