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Communism Inspires University Workers More Than Anything Else

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SEATTLE, USA, July 23—University of Washington campus workers took a step forward tonight. ICWP members and friends formed a collective to prepare for political job actions to answer racist killings by cops.
Communist solutions were discussed in detail. This group works in the health sciences department so we discussed communist healthcare. Of course, communist education and building a society without cops took center stage. Every job action, from petitions to political strikes, would aim for communist answers. Building for communist revolution must be our daily goal.
One worker was active in a campus union, the SEIU. She had been to a union-sponsored convention on $15 per hour a year ago, forced to listen to Hillary Clinton’s incremental change nonsense. At that time Clinton said $15/hour was unrealistic.
On the one hand, our friend had clearly lost faith in trade unionism. She understood that the bosses’ crisis of overproduction had rendered the unions even more powerless. On the other hand, she complained that campus workers expected the union to get them benefits and pay raises without a fight.
“It’s frustrating,” she said. “It so hard to get these workers to fight around these issues in the contract.”
“Maybe we would get a better response if we organized a political group on the job to end racism with communist revolution,” suggested a comrade.
She was open to the idea. She was most enthused about the glimpses of communist potential in her life struggles than anything else.
Taste of Communism Makes Big Impression
For example, her husband is a cook. He went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He and his friend, a nurse, set up a clinic with neighborhood people. As it turned out, it shared features with the Chinese revolutionary system of “barefoot doctors.”
Barefoot doctors came from the work brigades in the rural areas, hundreds of thousands of them. They were trained for six months and then rejoined the workers from their villages. At first they provided basic healthcare, but soon began organizing mass campaigns to rid the countryside of plagues and disease. This process was repeated over a number of years.
The barefoot-doctor program stood in stark contrast to the hierarchies of bourgeois hospitals. Bosses’ healthcare segregates doctors from nurses from paraprofessionals, janitorial staff and especially patients. Communist healthcare relies on mobilizing masses.
Similarly, her husband’s clinic stood in stark contrast to the fancy facilities of non-governmental agencies (NGOs) like the Red Cross. The NGOs had hot-water showers and fully-stocked medical facilities. Unlike the clinic her husband was involved in, the NGO staff never went out in the neighborhood to ask if anybody needed help. In fact, the NGO facilities were used mostly by the NGO staff itself and the New Orleans cops. The same police force massacred unarmed black civilians on Danziger bridge, who were fleeing the flood six days after the storm hit.
Communist Vision Energizes Us
This friend and the others at the meeting were more excited about building for political actions against racist police killings and for communism than the reform contract struggles of the union. Organizing groups on the job around the communist politics of the ICWP is a better way to go. They will create the passion we need. We must apply this lesson as we fight to build similar shop formations at Boeing and other worksites.
Our friends’ stories of how their past struggles have moved them to the left inspired us all. They should write them up for Red Flag. Most importantly they should join the party and immediately aim to recruit their friends and family. They would bring with them invaluable experience.
While the aim is political strikes, on-the-job group discussions, for example, can advance the work. Maybe, next time these university workers can report on their progress and lead the discussion at our next social event.
Everyone took ICWP stickers, leaflets and newspapers to distribute as they left. “When’s our next get-together?” asked new and old friends. Communism creates enthusiasm.

 

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