SEATTLE, WA — Egypt and the Sakuma Brothers Berry Farm strike dominated the discussion at an emergency meeting of the International Communist Workers' Party this weekend. Egypt is a bigger struggle, but both show the masses on the move. Everyone took extra papers for coworkers, family and friends in a number of countries.
Capitalism has failed the working class; nobody felt they could rely on the traditional organizations, like unions, that used to define reform. We agreed to spread the strategy of mobilizing the masses for communism wherever there is class struggle. Indeed, the mass mobilization for communist revolution has become an immediate life and death issue.
We held our meeting in both Spanish and English. Old friends took new initiative, providing translation when necessary. About an hour north, 240 striking families at Sakuma farms regularly deliberate in three languages: Spanish, Mixteco and Triqui.
A bilingual group of comrades will accompany new and old friends to visit the farm community with Red Flag. We hope to have discussions similar to the one at our meeting with strikers. We will bring these lessons back to a wider audience at our monthly "pizza and politics" dinner.

Imperialism and Revolution
The strike discussion took the measure of the political climate in which workers take matters into their own hands, in opposition to union leaders or, in this case, without unions altogether.
Egypt was the biggest news this week. Far from being demoralized by the massacres there, our friends were angry. "This is not going to stop," said the translator. "Workers will continue to fight against the capitalists' crisis. Now, what are we going to do?
"Persistence and tenacity [are the key]," he insisted.
"Does the U.S. always get involved in every struggle around the world, like in Latin America?" asked another worker.
"Everywhere they can," answered another comrade, "but it's not like it was decades ago.
The U.S. can't always call the shots." We concluded the imperialists were cynically maneuvering in hopes of reasserting their power. The imperialists fight it out in a world marked by instability and ungovernability.
Then we got to the heart of the discussion.

Workers have paid in blood for the lessons Egypt tells us.
"The only way to end exploitation is with revolution," said a worker who has seen his share of radical movements, "and there is only one way to have a revolution: with armed might."
Passive resistance only leads to more workers' deaths. This led to the necessity of communist work in the military and industrial working class. Imagine if we had a mass communist base in the Egyptian Army. The butcher General Sisi would not be long for this world.
All agreed that religion was a deadly diversion for the Egyptian working class.
Then a new worker asked what our party thought about Castro and Chavez. Nothing can substitute for communism, especially not socialism, we answered.
Historically, the communist movement made the mistake of thinking socialism would lead to communism. That's never happened.
In fact, socialism is another form of capitalism. The strategy of fighting for socialism has done terrible harm to the communist movement. We have to root out the basis of capitalism-- production for sale and profit--by fighting directly for communism.
After a half-hour, the translator fell silent. A comrade asked if he thought this was going too far. "No," he answered. "I'm trying to figure out how we can avoid that mistake again!"

Feeding Everyone: Communist Imperative
This strike of super-exploited immigrant farmworkers raises the question of how we could feed workers without exploitation.
The bosses assert cynically that food would be too expensive if they paid farmworkers more.
The bosses' non-government organizations call for indigenous seeds and small farms. Neither can compare with masses mobilized with communist consciousness to fight to feed everyone.
We don't promise a paradise on earth. We expect to build communist society from the ashes of capitalist destruction, probably a world war. At times, we may not be able to provide very much, but we will share what we have. No longer will millions starve while others eat their fill.
The struggle to feed our brothers and sisters requires eliminating the division of mental and manual labor. Agricultural science will not be locked away in the universities. It will be in the hands of agricultural workers.
Everyone who is able will work and everyone will be expected to teach. Agricultural sciences will flourish in the service of the masses, not for the profits of the bosses. Communism will unleash the persistence, tenacity and creativity of the working class.
In the process of fighting to produce what we need, we will produce our most essential necessity: more communists dedicated to our class.