I think it’s true that those of us in the working class naturally possess a potential to know something that the bourgeoisie cannot. This potential starts with the fact that, having no buffer between personal experience and economic reality, the working class is constantly put in touch to understate the actual, hard truth of an economic system that places profit over human need.

So when I first came across wsws.org about 2 and a half years ago, I recognized right away something quite familiar. The direct, clear and precise writing style really spoke to me on a deep level and kept me coming back. And little by little, while getting acquainted with the actual, hard reality of today’s politics—especially the true role of the trade unions here and around the world in subordinating the working class to the bourgeoisie—I naturally began viewing politics primarily in terms of objective forces and events.

Then I began reading David North’s The Heritage We Defend and had an epiphany of sorts. I was reading about how the Pabloites subordinated the class struggle to the conflict of the Cold War and how as a consequence “the real underlying conflict between the world bourgeoisie and the international proletariat” eventually “receded from the political consciousness.”

This explained much about today’s official silence, confusion and estrangement from reality exhibited by the bourgeoisie during, for instance, the deepest jobs crisis since the Great Depression. Suddenly, I was no longer thinking in terms isolated from a broader class struggle. For me that comes down to finally knowing exactly what I’m up against, exactly who’s up against it with me, and exactly what kind of political weapons and leadership we need to prevail. In other words:

“They will find in the political biography of Comrade Keerthi Balisuriya an inspiring example of courageous and principled political struggle. Even more importantly, in the Marxist political conceptions that he defended and developed they will find the theoretical and political weapons to guide the struggle for the political independence and revolutionary mobilization of the international working class.”

( The enduring significance of the life and work of Comrade Keerthi Balasuriya )