Red Flag Newspaper
International Communist Workers Party
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SEATTLE- It was supposed to be the season to be jolly but the bosses painted a pessimistic picture of the world situation. In different year end reviews they said what a terrible year 2015 was. Even the Queen of England felt she had to promise “light ahead” after the darkness of the past year.
They have a point – up to a point. The year 2015 saw a sharpening overproduction crisis causing the collapse of commodity prices, wage cuts and layoffs; the escalation of the war in Syria; tens of millions (literally, more than 60 million) of refugees in camps fleeing; the death of Aylan Kurdi (one of thousands); the ongoing massacre of Black youth in the US by racist killer cops; the rise of the neo-fascist right (from Marine Le Pen to Donald Trump); the Paris and San Bernardino massacres and the fascist government response.
Bad news, for sure, but just one side of the story. The fall in commodity prices sparked the rebellion in Potosí, Bolivia, where thousands of indigenous miners took over the town for a month. Syrian and other migrants fleeing to Europe were welcomed by huge crowds in Germany and flooded with gifts by people opening their homes to them. In the US a huge movement was spawned to protest the racist murders. Austerity in the UK and Belgium was met with huge protests, over 100,000 marchers in each. Austerity in South Africa (the university fees hike) was met with a student rebellion that shook the country (Red Flag reported on all these).
Good news, but there’s even better. ICWP is growing all over the world, including in South Africa, where we held a brilliantly successful conference. Since then (and not just in South Africa) it’s become common for groups to search us out to find out what we have to offer.
What we have is communism – a society without money and wage slavery and racist super-exploitation, where everyone works, everyone eats, and everyone has housing and health care. A society where racism and sexism are on the run and masses mobilize to suppress out-and-out racists and fascists.
Here in Seattle and way beyond, the people who searched us out liked what they heard and spread the word to their friends. Some invited the ICWP into their own homes, so their friends, family and coworkers can hear the good news. They signed checks to support the communist movement. Throughout the season, those that missed the initial house meetings showed up later, gifts in hand, to catch up on the party’s progress.
“This is powerful!” concluded a house guest, referring to Red Flag.
There are other anti-capitalist organizations, of course, but they have nothing to offer. Other than, maybe, critiques of capitalism and calls to fight harder for reforms. This is depressing and futile. Workers know capitalism is bad, and don’t need lessons about fighting. They need something to fight for, and a group that will organize the fight.
They need to fight for communism, and join the ICWP, the only party that’s organizing that fight.
The bosses’ world outlook is getting more pessimistic by the day. We cannot fall victims to their malaise. More people are giving Communism a second look and joining. This is grounds for optimism.
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Chicago Protest Against Racist Police Murder (more here)
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Comrades, it is a great pleasure to meet and to join you in the International Communist Workers Party. I am a young French communist. Not so many months ago, I wasn’t a communist. So, why did I decide to join you? Because I am disgusted about what is happening in France, and all over the world. The wars in Syria and Ukraine, the immigrants’ crisis, all these things that are caused by capitalism.
I can’t stay in my home, watching the world falling down in the hands of the capitalists, while doing nothing. It is my choice to do my best to change things, and educate people to make them see the truth and free themselves from the chains of servitude. Together, let’s fight for and create a great future.
I am 24 years old, living 100 kilometers from Paris. I started reading the Red Flag and then I read the story of German and British soldiers fraternizing about 100 years ago. I posted that story to my friends on the social network. I was very impressed with the story and the Red Flag.
Since then I have been communicating with an ICWP member and I go to the website. I really like what I see. The Red Flag is a great initiative and we don’t have anything like that in France. So after reading the Red Flag, I asked the comrade of ICWP how I can join the party. He explained to me what it means to join, which is commitment to organize ICWP among the masses and financially contribute according to ability. I thought joining was a formal process and how it was explained gave me more hope that we can create communism.
I was born in France and my parents have Russian and Ukrainian ancestry. Although my family does not believe in communism, it has always been my dream. Some people my age here want to make a lot of money to solve their problems, but capitalism is crushing us all. It is a difficult struggle but we can win the masses to our side.
I want to say that I am a very proud new member of ICWP. Now I have the opportunity to change the world that I did not have before. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. We cannot afford to waste any more time. We have to work among immigrants and other workers. My greetings to ICWP members and a Happy New Year from an ICWP comrade in France.
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The Christmas Eve march in Chicago was one of many demonstrations since the release of a 2014 video showing a white officer shooting a black teenager, LaQuan McDonald, 16 times. Two days later, Chicago cops killed community activist Bettie Jones and 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, both black, in the two-flat where Quintonio’s father and Bettie lived.
The Cleveland march was part of a nationwide response to the failure to indict cop Timothy Loehmann for the murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
US cops and sheriffs killed over 1200 people in 2015, a quarter of them in the 60 largest US cities. Cleveland was one of fourteen large police departments that killed ONLY black people in 2015. Overall, black people are about 20% of those cities but over 40% of the victims.
Back in 2006 the FBI warned that Ku Klux Klan and Nazi fascists were organizing inside major police departments, including Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles. This shows that the capitalist US rulers are intentionally unleashing racist terror. This is an attack on the whole working class. It’s meant to scare us into submission. It won’t!
Liberals and nationalists are misdirecting the mass movement to call for the resignation of public officials like Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel, a former Obama aide, or Los Angeles district attorney Jackie Lacey.
A tiny handful of capitalist-imperialists can only rule through a combination of terror and illusions. The masses can end the terror only by shedding all illusions in reform. We must mobilize for communist revolution.