As capitalism’s worldwide crisis deepens and imperialism drives relentlessly to wider and more deadly energy wars, hundreds of millions of workers are questioning capitalism. The crisis will deepen, regional wars will explode into World War III, and billions of workers unable to live in the old way will look for radical alternatives.

Will the workers choose to fight for communism as the only solution to the capitalist inferno? Not unless revolutionary communists now wage a protracted, patient, determined effort to put communism on the agenda of the international working class. This is the task we have shouldered: to win masses of workers to embrace communist ideas and to use them to fight for, win, and build a communist world.

Communism means a radical transformation of all social relations and institutions. This will require armed revolutionary struggle to smash the capitalist dictatorship that oppresses and exploits workers worldwide. Workers’ power – the dictatorship of the working-class – will midwife the birth of the new society.
Millions of workers, organized worldwide as one party, will collectively run every aspect of society in our class’ interest. The International Communist Workers Party we are building today is the nucleus of that new world.

Communism will abolish money and the market. Nothing will be sold or bought. We will abolish capitalism’s wage slavery and exploitation because we’ll have no need to sell our labor power. Free from capitalism’s curse of “work or starve,” we will creatively and enthusiastically contribute to society “according to our commitment” and receive “according to our need.”
Communism means a world without borders or nations. Workers will be welcomed wherever they go. We will replace the bosses’ poisonous patriotism, used to protect their interests and pit workers against workers, with the true internationalism of “one world, one class, one party.”
Only communism can end racism, the cornerstone of the capitalist system. The bosses need racism, nationalism and sexism to maximize their super-profits, to divide and rule over us. Capitalism’s “dog-eat-dog” mentality will be smashed by our egalitarian, collective way of life. As we take the future into our own hands, revolutionary optimism will prevail over cynicism, mysticism, and despair.

The road to communism is long and rocky, but “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Last century saw heroic struggles with workers “daring to storm heaven” and winning powerful victories despite overwhelming odds. The Russian Revolution of 1917, the defeat of Hitler’s Nazi hordes at Stalingrad in 1943, the Chinese Revolution of 1949, and the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s were tremendous achievements that still inspire us today.
Standing on the shoulders of these giants, we can see farther and clearer. We now see that these great victories were reversed because the old communist movement fought for socialism. They thought workers couldn’t be won to fight directly for communism. Socialism is state capitalism, but communists believed they could steer it toward communism. It inevitably turned them into capitalists.

Fighting directly for communism presents us with the huge task of building an international Party of millions of workers, soldiers and students before, during and after taking state power. Only millions of critical thinkers, workers imbued with the most advanced communist theory and practice, can guarantee that our Party won’t become revisionist.
Revisionism means not having confidence that the working class can embrace and act upon the most advanced communist line at any particular time. Revisionism is the pro-capitalist ideology within every one of us. It is an ever-present danger that must be struggled against constantly. Criticism and self-criticism are among our main tools to defeat revisionism.
Today, Russia and China are imperialist powers locked in deadly rivalry with US imperialism on a collision course toward WWIII. We won’t embrace “revolutionary nationalism”, as the old communist movement mistakenly did before WWII, or abandon our revolutionary slogan that “working people have no nation.” Confident that workers can defeat fascism with communist revolution, we reject alliances with any “lesser evil boss” and condemn all “national liberation” struggles.
We warm of the dangers and stress the opportunities in the approaching storms. The First World War laid the ground for the Russian Revolution and WWII opened the door for the Chinese Revolution. Our task now is to prepare to turn the coming imperialist world war into a worldwide class war for communism.

Fighting for communism means making communist ideas primary in every struggle where workers, soldiers, and students are fighting back against the bosses’ attacks. Understanding that revolution and reform are contradictory, we must inject our communist ideas in every piece of literature, every conversation, and every struggle, confident that workers will see communist revolution as the only solution to their problems.
Long-term ties with our fellow workers, especially in the factories and barracks, are key to exposing illusions in reformism and reformist leaders. We use our newspaper Red Flag to build networks of readers and writers, organize action-study groups and recruit to our party. The relationships we build today will sharpen the class struggle, make revolution possible, and become the heart of the communist world we are building.

The road to communism is long, with many ups and downs. Nevertheless, the final victory shall be ours. We face the most murderous fascist ruling class in history: the world’s capitalists-imperialists. They boast the most lethal and destructive weapons. They arrogantly stride the world as all-powerful and invincible. However, they are strategically weak. More than any other ruling class in history, their economic and military might depend on the world’s workers – especially those in industry and the military -- who are historically their gravediggers.
What blocks the completion of our historic task? The main obstacle is the rulers’ poisonous ideology among our ranks. Racism, sexism, and nationalism divide us. Patriotism and reformism chain us to our exploiters. Cynicism, mysticism, one-sided thinking and individualism paralyze us. We must smash these deadly ideas with a growing communist class-consciousness. We must deepen our understanding of dialectical materialism, our guiding science to liberation. The sooner we do this, the sooner we will smash capitalism and begin the construction of our new communist world. The future is ours! Fight for Communism! Join the International Communist Workers Party! Read, Distribute, and Write for your newspaper RED FLAG!