Inspired by Communist Struggle for A World Without Borders
SEATTLE (USA), April 13— “Does the pamphlet have the stories you talked about?” asked a high school student at the end of our May Day potluck.
What stories? Stories about more immigrant and native-born Boeing workers and students passionately debating the answer to fascist attacks on refugees.
Stories about how appalled workers were when they learned the history of the racist U.S. eugenics movement and its relationship to Nazi genocide.
How, in each case, our comrades struggled for the communist alternative: a world without borders.
What pamphlet? The ICWP’s pamphlet that declares, “In communism, there will be no foreigners, only one worldwide working class.” The student took extras along with Red Flag.
We related anti-immigrant attacks at the U.S.-Mexico border to anti-migrant attacks around the world. We didn’t limit the conversation to the reinstating of family separations and armed US fascist militias terrorizing migrant families traveling from Central America. For example, we talked about the refugee crisis in Bangladesh and the attacks on refugees in Durban, South Africa.
“There were 277 million migrants in 2017,” commented an old friend, repeating the figure presented in a comrade’s opening remarks. “That’s an awful lot,” she added as she started to appreciate the extent of the upheaval.
A veteran Boeing worker wanted to know what role racism and xenophobia (hatred of foreigners) played in the Brexit fiasco. He began to see these issues in the context of the ultimate struggle between fascism and communism.
We connected the fight against xenophobia to the fights against racism and sexism. We weren’t the only ones.
When 200,000 marched in Milan against Italy’s new anti-immigrant laws, a marcher told the press, “We are tired of this atmosphere of racism.”
Another new friend at Boeing called the atmosphere a “perfect storm [of] racism, sexism and xenophobia” as she argued with her friends about creeping fascism.
Links in A Chain
“Racism, sexism and xenophobia are not separate issues that affect only a particular group of people,” added a comrade.
They are links in a chain of capitalism in crisis. We must tightly grasp our communist answer to xenophobia, then pull hard to connect it to the communist fight against racism and sexism.
All this pointed to our goal of mobilizing the masses for communism, not socialism. Democratic Socialist and U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told an Iowa town hall he was against open borders.
“There’s a lot of poverty in this world. You’re going to have [poor] people from all over the world. Can’t do it,” he asserted.
A Vietnamese couple had struggled with their Vietnamese friends about how they should welcome new immigrants. But their friends, like Sanders, saw the new immigrants as “financial burdens.”
Socialism cannot answer the migrant crisis because it maintains the wage and commodity system. People would still compete for jobs, not work collectively to provide for our class. That’s why his system “can’t do it.”
Our labor power is bought and sold under capitalism and socialism. Communist social relations will end all that.
In communism, refugees and immigrants will immediately join work collectives. Their experiences will be invaluable both in providing for workers who follow and in giving leadership to the working class in the communist struggle. They will play a vital role in building an international mass party and mobilizing even more masses for communism everywhere.
After having discussions like this with party members, the Vietnamese couple went back to their friends, armed with communist ideas.
Finally, we linked all this to our aims this May Day. Many at the march think a world without borders is a good idea. Our party has a plan to make it a reality with communist revolution. That plan is spelled out in our new pamphlet. We invited our friends to distribute it along with Red Flag—immediately, at the march, and beyond.
Debates like these create enthusiasm. This enthusiasm helped us raise $600 towards the cost of printing the migration pamphlet in South Africa. We are building an international communist party today to mobilize for a communist world without borders tomorrow. Join us this May Day!
Get the pamphlet “Fight for the Day when No Worker Will Be Called Foreigner” at icwpredflag.org/ffde.pdf or contact ICWP to get a bunch to distribute.
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