Red Flag Newspaper
International Communist Workers Party
|
|
Red Flag NewspaperInternational Communist Workers Party |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
| |
Hurricane Matthew that struck Haiti was an act of nature, but the death and destruction it inflicted is the result of racist capitalism. Dire poverty and lack of infrastructure murdered more than a thousand people. Their homes crumbled around them. There were no safe evacuation shelters. Now more lives are in grave jeopardy because people lack clean water, food and health care. Cholera is on the rise.
For capitalism, workers’ lives are cheap and expendable. This cries out for a communist system where the lives of the masses are cherished and appreciated above all.
The capitalist profit system set Haiti up for this disaster. Even before the 2010 earthquake, 1.9 million people needed food assistance. Around 60 percent of the population lived on less than $1.00 a day. Malnutrition and anemia ran rampant.
In 2009, the Haitian Parliament unanimously passed a law raising the minimum wage to 61 cents (US) an hour. US garment manufacturers opposed this and the US State Dept., led by Hillary Clinton, pushed Haiti’s president to lower the minimum wage to 31 cents an hour.
In 2010, a huge earthquake hit Haiti, where there were few secure buildings. Over 250,000 people were killed. Millions were homeless. 10,000 people have died of cholera since the earthquake in 2010 and 27,000 more have the disease. Cholera was brought to Haiti by UN troops sent to maintain “order” after the earthquake. Not using careful sanitary measures, they sent it massively into the water supply.
Capitalist aid is to help the capitalists, not the workers. The Clinton Foundation raised billions of dollars to “help” the earthquake relief effort. The US and UN put the Clinton Foundation in charge of reconstruction. Lucrative contracts were awarded to their friends. Hillary’s brother got a gold mining contract. Promised aid did not reach those in need.
Hurricane Matthew worsened this. Crops and fruit trees, the food supply, were destroyed in the southwest, Haiti’s “breadbasket.” UN troops have attacked starving workers who have surrounded trucks delivering supplies, to get food and water.
The most urgent need of the masses is to mobilize for communism, to build a mass ICWP to mobilize for a society that meets their needs, not the needs of the murderous bosses. Freed from capitalism, masses of workers will use our minds and labor to collectively build everything we need—without money.
Immediately after Hurricane Matthew, Haitian workers in areas isolated by flooding, collapsed bridges, and destroyed communication systems, pooled their scant resources to survive collectively. Some who had lost everything found shelter in caves together and helped each other hunt for food.
We see the possibility and need for communism in the masses’ collectivity in this disaster as well as in their daily struggle for survival. Haitian workers’ valiant history of struggle for liberation in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles shows the potential for communist revolution.
Communist revolution will destroy capitalism and imperialism along with racist wage slavery. Workers will mobilize to plan and build everything we need: food and industrial production, health care centers, roads, bridges, early warning systems for storms and earthquakes, and shelters to withstand them. We won’t produce anything for sale—only for use. Everyone will help plan, produce and distribute what’s needed.
Before any hurricane or earthquake strikes, communist collectives of workers living in the area will take the lead in planning and building secure structures. During an emergency, these collectives will lead evacuations, rescue, cleanup, food distribution and provide health care. Workers from all over will come to help and learn from each other to protect workers’ lives and to strengthen communist relations of solidarity.
In 1804, enslaved Haitians organized a revolution against slavery. They gave the international working class a heroic example of tenacious struggle against imperialism. They defeated the French army, took power, and abolished slavery. The racist capitalist-imperialist system has punished Haitian workers ever since.
The French forced Haitians to pay $ millions for their “lost property.” Then the US invaded and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, putting down massive rebellions and killing 15,000 people to establish US control. They set up puppet governments and slave labor sweat shops, keeping the workers in dire poverty.
Let’s respond to the crisis in Haiti by building ICWP in solidarity with Haitian workers. Let’s spread Red Flag to Haiti and worldwide and build a mass party to mobilize for communism. Instead of donating to the Red Cross, donate money to ICWP to spread Red Flag. We cannot have a world where some live in luxury while our brothers and sisters starve and die of curable diseases like cholera because they lack clean drinking water, health care, and food.
The racist wage slavery of capitalism-imperialism is the source of all the miseries facing Haitian workers and all workers. ICWP is mobilizing worldwide to destroy capitalism with communist revolution. Haitian workers must give leadership in this fight. Join us!
We need help in translating Red Flag into Haitian Creole and many other languages. If you can help, please contact us!
--END--
We are a group of ICWP members and friends in Dhakka, the industrial and financial capital of Bangladesh.
We were introduced to ICWP and Red Flag about two years ago when Red Flag wrote a series of articles on the conditions of garment workers here. We were astonished to find how accurate the articles were and that they reflected the aspirations of the most down- trodden workers to end capitalism with a system without wage slavery.
We have never met any other members of ICWP from other countries but our communication has expanded. The recent general strike in India and the military adventure of the Indian army on behalf of the Indian ruling class, supported by US imperialism, gave us an opportunity to communicate with ICWP members in India and Pakistan.
It was a feeling hard to describe when we all see each other as a class, as members of the revolutionary ICWP to change the world. We are small, determined, with the conviction that the future belongs to us.
--Comrades in Bangladesh
EL SALVADOR—“They invited me to meetings several times, but Sunday is the only day that we have to do housework and spend time with our families,” said a worker. “And I asked myself whether I should go or not? In the end I got inspired and decided to come, together with my husband” (another worker).
A new member in the meeting said, “I set aside my Sunday to come to the meeting. It’s the day I play soccer, but I was interested in knowing more about the Party.”
With the sound of ocean waves hitting the rocks in the background, the ICWP political school began, with new women and men workers attending. Before beginning the agenda, we welcomed them. A comrade asked if they had already heard a little about the history of ICWP. They answered, “Yes.”
A worker leader said, “First we gave them Red Flag and invited them to the meeting. We told them about the struggle of ICWP and where we are going, briefly but clearly. Today, they are members of the Party.” Applause broke out.
The first agenda item was the conflict in Syria. A public-sector worker commented, “This is a proxy war. Why? In Syria the interests of Russia and the US are at stake. Partly it is a struggle for shares of world oil production.”
We addressed the importance of the US elections. There the bosses’ strategy is to make workers in that country believe that the problem in the US is latino/a immigrants. But the real problem is the crisis of the capitalist system and the fluctuations in the free market economy.
Next we talked about sexism. Two teachers made the initial presentation with an historical review of sexist behavior in class societies. They explained that changes have been made until now but they have not resolved the problem. They also emphasized that the material base of the problem is capitalism.
“We as communists do not fight against men or women. We fight against the material base of the problem: money and capitalism. In the future we will be just people with responsibilities,” commented someone about how the relationship between men and women will be in communism.
A worker gave the example that in the factory every three to six months they gave pills to the women, who didn’t know why. A supervisor told a worker who was present, “Pregnant, you don’t serve us, since you have created problems.”
A co-worker from the factory said, “Sometimes I don’t do things that my wife does but that is part of the education that I received since childhood. I went to the field to work until late, and the women stayed at home.” Then he added, “With my children it will be different, thanks to communist education.”
“How can we make more advances against the bosses?” someone asked. A student briefly responded, “Reading Red Flag, losing the fear of giving the newspaper to more co-workers and, most important, writing for the paper.”
“We are all comrades; no one is more than anyone else. This is a party that fights to transform society,” said another public-sector worker.
The worker who came from a new factory was asked what he thought of the meeting. He answered, “To achieve something in life, one has to struggle for what you want. It’s about sowing the seed and harvesting, like corn. We don’t expect immediate results but we take care of the land to await the harvest. There are always changes. I also asked myself will I go or not? But I am here and I am eager to learn more.”
--END--