On Friday, April 5th, 2024, the US Friends of the Soviet People held its first Congress in Monroe, New York.
The US Friends of the Soviet People (USFSP) Congress began with L’Internationale instrumental and the Paul Robeson version of the anthem of the Soviet Union. The opening speech was given by Michael SD, the chair of the USFSP. The history of the organization was given: US Friends of the Soviet People is an organization which continues the original National Council of American-Soviet Friendship of the twentieth century. In the 1990s, Northstar Compass was a magazine organized in Canada to uphold the Soviet experience. Northstar Compass worked with US Friends of the Soviet People in continuing the heritage and memory of the Soviet Union in the English-speaking world and within North America.
The USFSP Congress was held in AROW Park. AROW Park is a historic Soviet-American property in Monroe, New York, which was provided by the American Russian Organization of Workers, the Russian-American section of the International Workers Order of the 1930s. The International Workers Order represented language and cultural federations within the United States, such as Estonian, Polish, Russian, French, etc. Services for working people were provided in the case of Dental, insurance (such as life insurance, etc), and other items which were not generally available for working people prior to the successes of Franklin’s New Deal government, which created Social Security and other gains that generally improved the lives of working people of the time.
AROW Park was changed to “Arrow Park” in the 1950s due to McCarthyism. The McCarthyite period was a time when the historic Communist Party of the United States’ leadership and organizational structure was attacked. Leaders were arrested, members lost their jobs, and AROW Park changed its original motifs of a working-class organization to that of a Native American park, including the creation of Native American totem style artwork on AROW Park’s grounds.
Michael gave a speech on the importance of remembering the Soviet Union and its legacy up until the current day.
Noting that the Soviet Union and its history are more relevant now than ever, Michael spoke of the work of the USFSP Bulletins, which has collaborated with Jeff Monson, an American Communist living in Russia, Don Courtier, an American Communist also living in Russia, and others, such as Eduardo Artes, leader of the Communist Party of Chile (Accion Proletaria), among others.
USFSP has worked in all former Soviet Republics, from the Baltics to Central Asia, and especially in Ukraine and parts of Russia such as Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea. Since 2014, US Friends of the Soviet People has upheld the Communist Party of Ukraine and held events against the Fascist Maidan coup government. US Friends of the Soviet People also worked with some famous personalities, such as Russell “Texas” Bentley, an American who fought for the Donetsk Peoples Republic from 2014 to 2024.
Against the backdrop of the flags of the former Peoples Republics in Europe, such as the German Democratic Republic and others, the guests of the First US Friends of the Soviet People Congress gave their speeches.
Grover Furr, the American professor who leads studies into unbiased Soviet history, gave a speech detailing the importance of the study of the Soviet experience. Grover has participated with USFSP since the 1990s and Northstar Compass era. Grover spoke of the manipulation of the image of the Soviet Union and purposeful demonization of the world’s first Socialist country.
The legacy of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 was explained to the participants, and carrying the torch of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism was proposed.
Grover explained the ways in which the Soviet experience is distorted by the capitalist forces of the United States, and why the bourgeoisie (everywhere, in every country, including the United States) seeks to attack the USSR and its achievements.
Caleb Maupin from the Center for Political Innovation then spoke, stressing the importance of upholding the legacy of Comrade Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after the great Comrade Lenin.
Lenin and Stalin are attacked to destroy the integrity of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism itself, and the experience of real, tangible Socialism.
The attack on Stalin comes not only from the bourgeoisie and those among the right, but also those on the left and even some who call themselves Socialists or Communists. Many groups may even use words relating to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, yet to distort or revise the original history of Lenin or Stalin.
Stalin was explained by Maupin to be the creator of modern Marxism-Leninism, and the leader who led the USSR to victory against fascism during the Great Patriotic War. Stalin’s work was also felt in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, a time of a once powerful domestic Communist movement within the US itself.
Dan Kovalik, a peace activist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh, then spoke. Kovalik talked about his experiences in Russia and the Communist movement in the late twentieth century.
Communists are at the forefront of the anti-fascist struggle in Ukraine, against the jingoism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Dan Kovalik tied the Communists’ struggle against fascism in Ukraine to the resurgence of a new international communist movement, of a time where the United States unipolar hegemony will be broken and a defeat for the imperialist NATO warmongers will give rise to a new era in history.
After Dan Kovalik spoke, the US Friends of the Soviet People Congress elected the new USFSP Board of Directors until the next Congress.
The US Friends of the Soviet People Congress was concluded with the singing of the Paul Robeson song, “The House I Live in.”
The House I Live In – Paul Robeson (youtube.com)
US Friends of the Soviet People is dedicated to supporting struggles to restore socialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. USFSP is the US affiliate to the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with the Soviet People. The International Council carries on the traditions of the “Hands Off Russia” committees that were established internationally in 1918 to help protect the young Soviet Republics from foreign intervention. The aim of all Friends of the Soviet People is international cooperation in building socialism and solidarity with the anti-imperialist forces of the world who are struggling against US Imperialism — the main enemy of humanity. USFSP acts as a unifying force to help consolidate and coordinate the anti-imperialist forces of the world with the ongoing movement to restore the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as socialist states. We act as a unifying front, but are not a forum for ideological debates. The people of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe themselves will choose their paths toward socialism.