We are republishing an article originally appearing on The Partisan, a publication of the U.S. revolutionary movement.
This past weekend, the People’s Defense Committee (PDC) held its 1st Convention in Oklahoma City, OK, gathering together more than 50 activists representing dozens of cities and towns around the country. Over three days, comrades shared summations of their work, gave presentations and speeches on key topics facing the revolutionary movement, participated in workshops, ratified a constitution and program, elected a National Executive Committee, all culminating in a march that lead to a rally and cultural performances on the final day of the conference.
The event marked both the PDC’s first national convention, and a major step towards the unity of the revolutionary movement in the United States. The first day, summations were given of the former Revolutionary Study Groups (RSGs) and Revolutionary Maoist Coalition (RMC), the two main predecessors of the People’s Defense Committee, who have now united their forces under the banner of sectoral mass organizations like PDC, as well as other mass organizations in the labor, student, youth, international solidarity, and oppressed nation sectors. The summations demarcated with their former errors, such as the intermediate organization model, and emphasized the importance of grasping the phrase “class struggle is the key link and everything else hinges on it.”
The convention paid tribute to people’s struggles across the world and stressed the importance of international solidarity for all revolutionaries fighting US imperialism. The ongoing agrarian revolutions in India, Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia were highlighted. In particular, the Convention joined in the Red Sun People’s Current of Mexico in calling for the alive presentation of Dr. Ernesto Sernas Garcia, democratic lawyer who has been forcibly disappeared by the US-backed Old Mexican State for 7 years. It also declared its opposition to the ongoing Operation Kagaar in India. During the mass work summations, PDC chapters and fraternal and observer organizations reported on their work against police brutality, such as the Justice for Nate campaign, experience in organizing tenant unions, the struggle against municipal neglect and cuts, for the defense of basic democratic rights, and other people’s struggle in the neighborhood sector.
Speaking on the importance of unity and the future of the revolutionary movement, a representative of the former RSG concluded his speech with these words:
“If the Revolutionary Study Groups and the Revolutionary Maoist Coalition were the two largest predecessors of the People’s Defense Committee, it would be wrong to remain chained to these and other small-group labels. They are an important part of our past, and still influence our present, but our future is not bound to this kind of genealogical and pseudo-sectarian thinking. But we must grasp that the home of PDC, or NLOC, or RSU does not belong to this or that former group or this or that leader. All those who walk down the path of socialist revolution, who walk down the path of the working-class and the oppressed nations who yearn for the right to self-determination, who take up the work with dedication and sincerity, who are willing to learn from and serve their fellow masses, all these people regardless of which organization they come from, or what city they were born in, all these people are comrades of ours.”
The Masses 