John Willich was a Prussian army career officer who quit after 25 years to become a carpenter. He was a German 48er who formed the proletarian army in the German Revolution with Friedrich Engels as second-in-command. He was exiled to England, where he joined Marx and Engels. Polemics between Willich and Marx-Engels led to his joining an opposing communist faction. In the 1850s he emigrated to the US where he become involved in communist clubs. He was an abolitionist who worked with free African Americans. In the Civil War, he started an innovative and highly praised German regiment. Conclusion: along with other Germans, he brought communism to the US—way before the Russian revolution.
Al Sargis founded the Friedrich-Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis, an informational outlet at the NPML. His presentations on this and other subjects have been made at the Chinese Academy of Military Science and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, among other venues, including the ICSS.
This is planned to be a hybrid meeting on Zoom and at the NPML.
