Former union boss at Occupy event: Our goal is to 'overthrow the capitalist system and build communism (video)

Former Amalgamated Transit Union local 689 president Mike Golash, now an “Occupy” movement organizer, was caught on tape Sunday revealing his political goals: overthrowing capitalism in the United States and instituting a communist government.

“Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization,” Golash said during an Occupy DC “People’s Assembly” on August 19.

“Its objective,” he added, “is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism.”

Golash said he and his comrades are “trying to learn something from the historical revolutions of the past: the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the revolutions in Cuba and Eastern Europe.”

“What can we learn from them so we can build a more successful movement to transform capitalist society?”

“An organization has to be built which can bring down capitalism,” Golash said.

“The capitalists — they have their organizations: the FBI, the CIA, the secret police, the military, the army, etc., etc. They have organizations to maintain their power. It’s foolish to think that without a disciplined organization made up not of a few people but of millions and millions of people, [we] can bring down capitalism.”

The video, posted on YouTube late Sunday, was shot by young conservative activists Nick Tomboulides, Andrew McCaughey and Danielle Saul. The Occupy DC event was held at Luther Place Church in downtown Washington, D.C.

Golash recently retired from his job as a public transit bus driver. The ATU local 689, which he used to lead, bills itself as the third-largest union local in North America.