FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
|
|
FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!International Communist Workers Party |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA,
August 7— On Monday, August
5th, Governor Brown ordered
BART workers to stay on the job for
a week while his panel "investigated"
the contract negotiations.
Such panels usually order a 60-day
cooling off period.
It's not only BART workers
whom the bosses aim to cool off and
demoralize. It's also tens of thousands
of government workers in
cities, counties, water and power,
school, and transit districts across
the Bay Area.
After five years of furloughs and
cuts in pay, pension, medical, vacation
and sick time, government
workers are fed up. BART workers
are being singled out because of
their potential power to choke the
Bay Area's freeways. Break the resistance
of BART workers, the
thinking goes, and the other districts
will be broken too.
The BART negotiation is not so
much a labor dispute as a skirmish
in class war. In legal, organizational
and political terms, the unions are
incapable of waging class war. They
say the capitalist class should run
society and workers should be
happy if they get a "fair" break.
Class war, on the other hand, demands
class consciousness: a realization
that workers, who create all
the value in society, are politically
capable of running that society too.
Class war needs the organization
and leadership of a revolutionary
communist party. The small but
growing ICWP has set out to be that
Party.
Imperialism Shapes BART
Conflict
The major issues of the BART
strike weren't decided in the Bay
Area or even in Sacramento. They
were decided before negotiations
began. The proposed cuts at BART
(and all the Bay Area government
agencies) are a direct result of the
battle for economic supremacy between
capitalist China, capitalist
Russia, and capitalist USA.
Listen to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaking at the Shangri-la Conference
in Singapore last May of Obama's "Pivot to
Asia." He insisted that "even under the most extreme
budget scenarios, the US military will continue
to represent nearly 40% of global defense
expenditures."
Talk like that should set off alarms
in every school, transit, and water district, every
government agency.
But the military is only part of the cost of the
"Pivot to Asia." More significant, according to
top government advisor Richard Haass, is "the
availability of economic assistance to East Asia's
poorer countries." (Foreign Affairs). The "availability"
of money! That translates directly into
"extreme budget scenarios" at BART today, A/C
Transit tomorrow and all the other agencies
whose contracts expire in coming months.
It all adds up to one simple fact: US rulers
want to rob Peter (us) to pay Paul (war contractors).
They are forced to
cheapen the cost of US labor in
order to expand their struggle
for economic supremacy. They
want us to accept more pension
cuts, higher medical costs, pay
and vacation cuts so that they
will have "available" the resources
to bomb, bully and buy
their way to supremacy.
Labor Dispute or Class War?
And this is a labor dispute?
No, this is class war ignited by
the deepening rivalry between capitalist China
and capitalist USA. This sort of rivalry, in turn,
inevitably leads to world war.
The US has already wasted over $6 trillion
(says economist Joseph Stiglitz) in unsuccessful
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In short, they are
desperate to make more and more money "available"
to their losing effort to maintain supremacy.
They will demand more and more sacrifices from
us. They are ruthless murderers, and the Chinese
and the other capitalists are no better.
Unfortunately, as a class we are not yet organized
enough to meet the bosses' onslaught. Trade
unionism is no alternative. A/C Transit hacks,
against the wishes of the members, refused to
back the strike. The traitors who supposedly "represent"
Oakland City workers (whose contract is
also being negotiated) only managed a one-day
token strike.
Only one side wins class war: it's either workers
or capitalists. We can't afford to lose, yet
we're not organized enough to win. However, we
can emerge stronger and more organized from the
BART skirmish in this class war by building our
revolutionary communist forces.
Communism is not about some distant revolution:
it's about mobilizing workers, students
and soldiers here and now. All of us must support
the BART workers' struggle by trying to organize
political strikes against capitalism and its war
contracts. We must expose how the imperialists'
schemes wreck our day-to-day lives.
We can promote Red Flag to replace the weak
culture of trade union solidarity with the powerful
one of revolutionary class consciousness. This is
how we fight for communism today!
"Our vision, working with Mexico,
is that they become more of a
regional strategic partner and more
of an outward-looking military.
During the past two to three years,
as the Mexican army and Mexican
navy have taken on a larger role beyond
internal security issues, our
relationship with them has really
grown and expanded."
—US
Major-General Francis G. Mahon,
Northcom Director for Strategy,
Plans and Policy
As the capitalist bosses of US and
Mexico plan for world war, the
working class youth in their armies
must plan to unite and turn the guns
around for communist revolution.
These war plans respond to the
deepening capitalist economic crisis
of overproduction, the worst since
the 1930s. This crisis is intensifying
the capitalists-imperialists' dog-eatdog
competition for raw materials,
cheap labor and markets. Further
spurring this dogfight is the rise of
China as the main challenger to US
imperialism's position as the
world's top-dog.
This rivalry can only be resolved
by war: world war.
This war has been brewing for
some time. We can't predict when it
will explode but our duty is to warn
and prepare our class to turn the
bosses' carnage into a class war for
communist revolution. We can end
forever all wars by eliminating the
profit system that needs and breeds
them.
For this, we must build our communist
forces in two key sectors of
our class: industrial workers and
soldiers. Besides concentrating our
organizing and mass distribution of
our literature among these sectors,
we must win our youth to become
industrial workers or soldiers to
massively recruit these crucial elements
into our Party.
To do this, to win our Party and
our class to take the necessary steps
that will guarantee our victory, we
must expose how the world's capitalists-imperialists are furthering
their genocidal plans.
World's Imperialists Consolidating Their
Turf in Preparation for Global War
China is striving to control Taiwan and the
South China Sea, Russia the Ukraine and its ex-
Central Asia Republics, Europe the Eastern European
countries, and the US what it now calls
"Fortress North America."
This is a retreat for the US imperialists. Gone
are the days when the whole continent, from
Canada to Argentina, marched to the orders of the
US bosses. Then, they called their military strategy
"Fortress America." Today it has been reduced
to Canada, the US and Mexico.
US Imperialism's Main Military Strategy:
"Pivot or Rebalancing" to Asia-Pacific
The US strategy is to fight China in the Asia-
Pacific region. "Pivoting or rebalancing" to this
region means making long-term preparations for
an eventual military clash with the China-Russia-
Iran axis. This strategy has three main components:
One is to further encircle China militarily, preventing
China from consolidating its hold on the
South China Sea and Taiwan, both of which are
crucial for China's military strategy.
Another is to control all the Pacific chokeholds
through which the bulk of China's imports and
exports must flow. Its aims to be able to cut off
China's oil imports during a confrontation. At
present China imports 57% of the oil it consumes,
and 80% of it travels through these chokeholds.
The third is to exploit the territorial disputes
between China and its neighbors - Japan, Australia,
the Philippines, Vietnam and others – to
forge military alliances. US rulers hope these allies
will commit themselves to fight China.
Mexico More Crucial than Ever to US
Imperialists' War Strategy
Fighting the China-Russia-Iran axis will require
tens of millions of troops and a huge industrial
workforce to produce, as cheaply as possible,
the enormous quantities of weapons such a war
demands. It will also devour huge amounts of
raw materials, especially oil and natural gas.
Mexico is not only crucial for its vast quantities
of oil, which are conveniently close to US
imperialism, but also because of its huge modern
industrial base and a population of 110 million.
Half of them are under 29 years of age.
This means a giant reservoir of skilled and unskilled
workers who now produce immense profits
for US bosses, while giving them a
competitive edge in world markets. In times of
war, they will produce vast quantities of weapons
for US imperialism just as cheaply. Millions more
will be recruited to fight and die for US imperialism.
The new Mexican labor and education reform
laws fit neatly into the US bosses plans. The labor
law guts work rules, full-time jobs, and pensions.
Today, Mexican workers' wages are even lower
than wages in China. This benefits US bosses'
current profitability and sets the basis for the
slave-like conditions needed for war production.
The education reform is to build patriotism and
obedience to capitalism. It also aims at producing
literate healthy workers and potential soldiers.
English and computer classes are now part of the
high-school curriculum, along physical education
and nutrition improvement.
The Mexican military is working closely with
the Pentagon to guarantee the eventual recruitment
of millions of these youth into the Mexican
army to serve under US command. In May 2012,
the US and Mexico conducted joint military exercises:
the beginning of an eventual fusion.
Our task is to fuse the international working
class into a revolutionary fighting force for communism!
The nucleus of this force is the International Communist Workers Party.