Times Cry Out for More Communist Leaders On-the-Job and Off
SEATTLE, USA—This week in the Boeing plants the topic of discussion was last week’s demonstrations. Some had gone. Many more wanted to discuss what they signified. We set out to make the need for communism the theme, developing potential communist leaders the goal.
The word “fascism” came up more than before. One machinist admitted she didn’t know what fascism is, but she wanted to.
The global economic crisis of capitalism sparked rebellions around the world. She, like many industrial workers, had lost confidence in the usual neo-liberal politicians the bosses have been offering. In a crisis like this, fascism emerges because the bosses can’t rule in the old way.
Even more importantly, the potential to build an international party to mobilize for communism increases. There is no doubt now that that potential includes the U.S.
We talked at some length about the characteristics of fascism. Fascism blames other workers for the sins of the capitalists. Any capitalist system would do that, but fascism intensifies the attacks. Last week’s marches zeroed in on increased racism, sexism and xenophobia.
These three evils rest on a foundation of wage slavery and super-exploitation. The capitalists, with the aid of their government, must always super-exploit black, Latin, immigrant and women workers. Capitalists everywhere in the world find or create a section of the working class to super-exploit. They must divide the working class along these same lines.
Liberal promises about the nation being “stronger together” cannot erase this need of capitalism. It is futile to wish for “kinder” bygone era of capitalism, because each of those bygone eras contained the seeds of fascism.
Only communism can destroy these fascist tools and the class of bosses who use them against us. First, we must eliminate the capitalist foundation. Communist work will be collective, based on the needs of our class. Workers will not need wages because the fruits of our labor will not have to be purchased. They will be distributed freely based on our needs. We will no longer compete with other workers for jobs.
When deadly wage slavery is replaced by useful collective work, we can mount the campaigns necessary to eliminate the remaining vestiges of racism, sexism and xenophobia. We’ll fight to change how and where we live, work, and play…and how we think about the world. Collectivity will rule, not competition. Communism will end the possibility of fascism re-emerging.
Some think (or hope) the fascism of Trump will be replaced in four years (or less) by democratic socialism, locally and nationally. But socialism of any kind maintains the wage system and profits. It too contains the seeds of a fascist revival.
Discussions like these continued for days with workers awakened by activity in the streets. But we weren’t starting from scratch. We have been discussing the ins and outs of communism with several closer workers.
One of our Boeing friends brought eight members of the girls’ high school basketball team he coaches to the march Saturday. They told him they have already organized fifty people from this multi-racial working-class school around Black Lives Matter and human rights.
He immediately gathered a bundle of the literature we distributed at the various marches and donated money for it. He included three items: Red Flag, our leaflet entitled “Only Communism Will End Sexism” and our pamphlet that declared “To End Racism, Mobilize for Communism.” The next day he gave them to the student leaders to pass out among the group. He was proud of these students, but knew that nothing less than communism will do.
All the time spent discussing how communism will work has borne fruit. He was once a minor union official, but lost confidence in trade unionism. He was recruited to work for Hillary Clinton, but lost faith in electoral politics.
But he has not lost hope. Our party gave him something else to place his hope in: communism. He has taken this hope as his own: distributing our party literature on and off the job.
Comrades plan to spend more time off the job with friends like these from Boeing and other places. These massive demonstrations demand we concentrate on developing potential communist leaders.
More than anything, we need more like the coach who have confidence that their base can mobilize even more for communism. Then we’ll be on our way to the only solution: communist revolution.
