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Terrorist Massacres:

Capitalism Created a Monster--Communism Will Slay It

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Over 130 killed by terrorists in Paris, 43 in Beirut, 224 in Sinai, 21 in Nigeria – the numbers add up.  The “Institute for Economics and Peace” did the math and reported more than 32,000 people killed by terrorists in 2014 alone.
Most were non-combatants, killed because they were from the wrong nation, the wrong ‘race,’ the wrong ethnic group, spoke the wrong language, and so on. They were killed by people who do not understand how capitalism works. They believe propaganda that says other victims of exploitation are their enemy…not the ruling class! When they accept these lies and then act on them, they become enemies of the working class.
The communist movement has never practiced terrorism, even though the old movement was tainted with nationalism. The International Communist Workers’ Party, like those who came before us, stands for the interest of the whole working class. We do not divide the workers of the world into subgroups with some more deserving than others. We are completely opposed to nationalism, sectarianism, xenophobia, racism and all the other poisonous ideologies that divide the working class and set worker against worker.
One problem with the Institute’s figures is that they only include deaths by groups like Boko Haram and ISIS. These outfits are basically amateurs because they don’t have air forces. If you include, for instance, the terror bombing of Gaza by Israel, the terror bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, and the terror bombing of Syria by everyone, you’re soon looking at more than a hundred thousand victims. Assad’s barrel bombs or the Air Forces of France, the UK or the US alone have killed many times the number that died in Paris.
Communists actively fight terrorism. We begin with the root cause, by winning people away from nationalism, sectarianism and so on. They join the ICWP rather than a group which is, say, nationalist.
When we take power we will eliminate the wage system—the material basis of racism. Collective production and workers engaged in ideological struggle will actively and energetically fight racism, sexism, nationalism and segregation. This will undermine the conditions that make some workers see ‘everyone else’ as the enemy. Collectivity and integration will make it much harder for reactionaries to target a specific group.
Even after we’ve taken power we can expect to be attacked by terrorists. This will include nationalists and sectarians but also fanatical anti-communists, who will want to bring back capitalism. No doubt, they will be supported by the remnants of the capitalist class still in power in other parts of the world.
Against them we will mobilize the masses. Life (including work, housing, and education) will be collectivized and no one will be left alone. If someone starts acting strangely, we will look into it – usually, for their own good. With no private housing, no one will be able to set up a secret apartment for holding meetings and storing weapons.
The working class, under the leadership of the party, will use weapons to defend communism if necessary (see letter page 14).
Terrorism -- and the capitalism which spawns it -- offers no future for workers. Communism would fight and eventually abolish terrorism, one of the plagues that currently make capitalism (in Lenin’s words) “horror without end”.

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