The following are remarks at the memorial service for Comrade Bob McCubbin, held on March 21, 2026, at the People’s Forum in New York City. Bob McCubbin was a pioneering theorist of LGBTQIA+ liberation, author of the groundbreaking 1976 work “The Gay Question: A Marxist Appraisal,” and a tireless organizer who built branches of revolutionary organization with nothing but knowledge, passion, and commitment.
From the Stonewall era through his final days organizing at San Diego Pride 2025, Bob never wavered in his belief that queer liberation was inseparable from the fight against capitalism and imperialism.
Like Bob McCubbin, John Parker is a founding member of the Struggle for Socialism Party and Struggle-La Lucha magazine. He is a coordinator for the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice in Los Angeles and is running for election to the U.S. House to represent California’s 37th Congressional District. He is on the ballot for the primary on June 2, 2026. Campaign information can be found at socialist4congress.org.
It’s interesting — when you see what’s going on today, the horror, the killing in Iran right now by the U.S. and Israel — and then you see someone challenge the idea that the U.S. is omnipotent. That is beautiful. How dare they fight back? And they’re not only willing to fight back — they know how to fight back. And that just reminds me of Bob, the things he did. San Diego wouldn’t have been San Diego without Bob. Bob recruited Gloria Verdieu and built a connection with the New Black Panther Party forces there, and the effects are still going on and will keep going on.
When we talk about building a movement, we’re not just talking about having a large staff, a massive social media team, or a lot of money. We’re talking about something more fundamental.
We’re talking about an organizer who can build a branch with nothing but knowledge, passion, and commitment — a commitment to the political tendency founded by Sam Marcy, Dorothy Ballan, and many others. A commitment grounded in a deep understanding of the national question, an understanding that provides a lens through which we can see all forms of oppression, especially those that are often ignored and go unrecognized. We’re talking about those who have been despised by religion, crushed by patriarchal society and its norms, and condemned by a moral code that denies the fundamental equality of every human being.
To stand with the oppressed, commitment to principle is essential. One must resist the sirens of opportunism. The Struggle for Socialism Party would not exist without a specific kind of loyalty — a loyalty not just to personalities but to ideas. It is the moral courage that Sam Marcy and others embodied. It took immense courage to go against the prevailing currents, to contribute to the science of society — to social development as refined in Marxism.
It took even greater courage to apply the science to questions that others dismissed as a distraction or an example of immorality. It took courage to defy one’s own family. It took courage to defy some of the best leftists, and even Marxists, who did not fully grasp the lessons of the Bolshevik Revolution and the strategic insights developed by Vladimir Lenin. This was not just a courage that put one’s life in jeopardy. This was a courage that put one’s career in jeopardy, a courage that put one’s social standing in jeopardy.
But we must ask ourselves: Where would the working class be without that courage? Where would we be if we were not determined to help create a united working class? Where would we be if we failed to understand the links between national oppression, gender oppression, and LGBTQIA+ oppression? As the trans community is targeted, that understanding is crucial. As people from Latin America and the Caribbean are targeted by imperialism, that understanding is crucial. As Black and African people are targeted, that understanding is crucial.
This is the legacy we inherit. It was a loyalty to our tendency, yes — but above all, it was a profound and unwavering loyalty to the working class and its inevitable march toward socialist revolution. This is the stand we must uphold. This is the courage we must embody.
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