LOS ANGELES, CA—During a meeting of the leadership of ICWP, we decided to participate in the pro-immigrant march on October 5. As part of the constant struggle to develop new leaders, I was assigned to coordinate the preparations: signs and bullhorn, calling the comrades and the base, and giving political leadership during the march to our group.
At the beginning I was a little reluctant and nervous, because I hadn't ever done it and didn't really understand what had to be done. When the comrades saw my reaction, they gave advice and explained more about the necessary role of women workers giving communist leadership. They stressed how these responsibilities give us more strength and understanding of our role as communists within the masses.
I accepted the responsibility, although I was still vacillating a little. But during the week, with each call to other comrades and friends in the base and their positive responses, I began to gather more confidence. We also prepared some signs that we would use.
The day of the march, our group included garment workers, transit workers and others. Several women came up to our group and asked us for signs, especially those that said, "Let's Fight for a World Without Borders."
Just behind us there was a group of unionized workers. They liked our chants began chanting them enthusiastically for much of the march. Black and white workers on the sidewalk also liked our chants. We made several contacts and exchanged information to visit them later. At the end we were all more optimistic. It showed us that if we are bold and put into practice the ideas of Mobilize the Masses for Communism, the working class will follow our leadership. I feel happy that I took one more step in my development as a communist.
--Woman comrade

Red Flag Creates a Buzz

BAY AREA, CA--Distributing Red Flag always creates a buzz. However, armed with a leaflet attacking the wage system, the buzz was louder than ever.
The leaflet supported the BART workers' contract struggle by raising the need to abolish the wage system altogether. It argued that the system delivered us wages at, but mostly way below, what is needed to bring up a family of four. It argued that wages kept us tied to a system that kept us down. But what caught people's attention was a detailed chart comparing the wages of all Bay Area workers.
"I live pay check to pay check," an A/C Transit driver and single mother of two told me, and that refrain was heard again and again as the chart helped people get an overview of wages and begin to see it as a system that kept us needy. "We need to pay everyone at the self-sufficiency rate ($74,000 per year in the Bay Area)," one woman argued. "It'll never happen, " I countered, "because the system is designed to keep us anxious or hungry – otherwise we wouldn't work day in day out for someone else's profits (BART creates $73 million a day)." But I couldn't convince her. Still her passionate insistence drew others into the discussion.
One argued that BART workers make too much. Our self-sufficiency friend disagreed. "We should all make BART wages," she countered, "that's fair."
"But if they paid us all like that," I jumped in, " it would blow their profits. No profit for the capitalist means no jobs for the worker. If we want a world that's fair, we have to smash the wage system, we have to fight for communism."
It was a lively discussion. No-one changed their position (we'll meet again at the next distribution of Red Flag) but I had found a new confidence. Before the distribution, I had my doubts about building strike support under a banner calling for the abolition of the wage system. Since that's a revolutionary idea that has not been heard for generations, I thought people might dismiss it as pie-in-the-sky. I was wrong!

--Bay Area Comrade