FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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To paraphrase a character in a famous Pogo comic strip, “We are confronted with overwhelming opportunities!”
That was many years ago, but it describes the situation (ICWP)  faces today.
At first sight there doesn’t seem to be much ground for optimism. The crisis of overproduction deepens and stock market volatility threatens a repeat of the financial breakdown of 2008. Austerity will be the order of the day, with resulting cuts to services, and more unemployment, hunger and homelessness. More wars and eventual World War are coming.
This really is bad news for workers, but it is not the whole story. The good news is that the world’s workers are not taking this lying down. All over the globe workers are rebelling against the bosses’ attempts to offload the crisis onto the working class. And these rebellions create opportunities to mobilize masses around communist ideas and recruit people to the ICWP.
Unlike all other political parties, we have something to offer: communism. Under communism there will be no financial crises because there will be no finance – no money, no stocks, no bonds, no banks no hedge funds. We will abolish the wage system and we will work collectively to provide food, shelter and other basic necessities for all.
Abundance will be a boon, not an attack, because it will mean that we can satisfy everyone’s needs. It will mean that we can work less, and slower, and more safely, and with less damage to the environment.
We can use the extra time to enhance our educational, political and cultural life. For  instance, workers could use the extra time to organize revolutionary support for others still under the yoke of capitalism like the recently striking Potosi (Bolivia) miners.

Overwhelming Opportunities

We could fill the whole newspaper reporting on the rebellions and opportunities created by the current crisis. Let’s just look at a few.
For a start there’s the migrant crisis in Europe (which Red Flag has been covering). The numbers are astounding. Literally millions are fleeing the Middle East and Africa. Germany alone plans to “welcome” up to 800,000 this year. Last week, 71 immigrant workers died in a truck in Austria and 150 did in boats in the Mediterranean.  Masses of workers have seen some of the worst that capitalism has to offer. Many who are outraged by these attacks on immigrants  will be open to communism And we shouldn’t neglect the many brave volunteers who show up to support them and even take them into their homes.
Then there was the rebellion in Potosi (mentioned before). The mainly-indigenous silver and tin miners took over the town and sent a 500-strong ‘delegation’ to La Paz (they walked!) to confront Evo Morales, the populist president of Bolivia. When he refused to meet with them,  they attacked the police with dynamite.
In Quito (Ecuador) tens of thousands of protesters demonstrate every week against the government. They are led by a contingent of indigenous workers and farmers with representatives from all over the country. On August 13 workers and even professionals (including doctors) joined them in a one-day general strike.
In Baghdad (Iraq) earlier this year thousands attacked the cops in a protest against the lack of electricity. In Beirut (Lebanon) the city government has stopped collecting garbage, which is piling up everywhere, smelling bad and burning. On August 23 protesters of the “you stink” movement took to the streets and battled the cops. Even though misled by the bosses’ agents, many of these workers can be won to communism.
Self-critically, we have not done enough to take advantage of these opportunities. Sometimes the obstacles themselves seem overwhelming – for example, we don’t yet have any members in many places – but we can take advantage of rebellions where we are.
Sometimes we do too little, and too late. And sometimes we just completely miss the boat. For example, in Seattle there was a debate on rent control that drew over a thousand people. We didn’t anticipate the large turnout. As a result, we didn’t insure we had a presence at the debate. This was doubly unfortunate because we had just published a Red Flag article explaining how communism could provide housing for the masses.
At the root of these weaknesses is unconscious pessimism – lack of faith in the world’s workers. Revolutionaries have to be optimistic; it’s part of our outlook. Better coverage of these opportunities in Red Flag (and on our web site) would help. But the best cure for pessimism is success: the more we take advantage of opportunities and advance our work, the more optimistic we will feel.
We often get a positive reaction to our communist politics (sometimes unexpected), but that’s not the limit. We can do more. The increased opportunities of our time open up new arenas of struggle. Almost every attack and fight-back is a chance to mobilize new workers in many ways to advance the fight for communism.
You can help by joining the ICWP. If you like what we say in Red Flag, or even just this article, talk to anyone already in the ICWP . We’ll want to find out a bit about you, and we’ll show you our manifesto, Mobilize the Masses for Communism (MMC). If reading, at least in English or Spanish, is a problem, we have one page summaries (also available in other languages such as French or Chinese).
If you agree with MMC, join us. We need your help in confronting the opportunities that really are overwhelming us.

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