The USA declared war on Germany in April 1917. French and British imperialists launched a bloody “spring offensive.” Wilfred Owen described its horrors in a poem by that name. Soldiers, he wrote, “rushed in the body to enter hell. /And there out-fiending all its fiends and flames/With superhuman inhumanities.”
The Russian masses were desperate for bread and peace. They had just overthrown the hated Czar. But Russia’s Provisional Government continued the war. More soldiers fell and more peasants starved.
“The peoples of Europe can bear it no longer, and are already rising up against the bellicose bourgeoisie,” wrote the young communist Stalin on May Day 1917.
“The Russian revolution is the first to be forcing a breach in the wall that divides the workers from one another. The Russian workers, at this time of universal ‘patriotic’ frenzy, are the first to proclaim the forgotten slogan: ‘Workers of all countries, unite!’”
A century later, deadly wars and patriotic frenzy are again spreading worldwide. As we mobilize for May Day 2017, in South Africa, El Salvador, India, Spain, the USA and elsewhere, we proudly proclaim: “Workers of all countries, unite – for Communism!”
A More Dangerous World – More Opportunities to Mobilize Masses for Communism
The capitalist pundit Robert Farley recently listed in Foreign Policy the “5 Places World War III Could Start in 2017.” He included Syria, Korea, India-Pakistan and “cyberspace.” Perhaps the greatest chance of danger,” Farley argued, “lies in the Baltic region.”
“Could” is not “will.” But imperialist competition for the world’s labor, market and resources makes world war inevitable. In a time like the present, when there is a general crisis of global capitalism, that means “sooner” rather than “later.”
In the last year alone, over fifty thousand people have died directly as a result of combat in Syria, over twenty thousand each in Afghanistan, Iraq and the African continent, and over twelve thousand in Mexico.
Many, many more workers and their families die each year from hunger, disease, and refugee crises caused by these wars. Only world communist revolution can end this hell. Only communist revolution can end the deadlier wars to come.
And Only Communist Revolution Can Build the World We Long For.
The Russian masses proved in 1917 that the working class can rise and take power. We’ll do it again! But our communist world will be very different from the socialism of the Soviet Union. Communist workers’ power will immediately end the core element of capitalism: a money-based economy.
Nobody will work for wages to get money to buy what they need. Instead our International Communist Workers’ Party will lead masses to work based on their commitment to each other. Workers already produce everything but capitalism’s laws allow a tiny ruling class to steal most of the fruits of our labor in the form of profits. In communism, the producers ourselves will decide what’s needed, organize the work, and distribute the fruits according to need. No markets, no money, no barter, no exchange – just sharing! Humanity will be able to live as the one huge family we really are.
Communism will have no “government” separate from the mass communist party that will welcome everyone into its ranks. The masses, organized as interlocked party collectives, will participate directly in making all decisions.
This mass communist party will weld the working people of the world into one powerful force. No longer will bosses be able to use nationalism, religion, or a reign of terror to force us to fight each other for their own profits.
On the basis of communist production and distribution, we’ll be able to win the fight against racism, sexism, ageism, ableism and other divisions that now weaken our class.
The last issue of Red Flag described the possibility and the urgent need to organize for communism inside the bosses’ armies as well as their factories and schools. Soldiers and sailors gave key leadership to Russia’s November 1917 revolution.
If you are in the military, we need you to join the ICWP now! If not, how can you help get Red Flag and communist ideas to military personnel around the world?
March for Communism with ICWP on May Day 2017
“And this holiday we are celebrating today, this May Day, is it not a sign that in the welter of blood new ties of fraternity among the peoples are being forged?” Stalin asked a century ago.
“The soil is burning underneath the feet of the capitalist robbers,” he declared, “for the Red Flag of the International is again waving over Europe.”
May Day this year will see the Red Flag of ICWP waving over Africa, Asia, the Americas – and Europe too.
Communism will smash all borders and tear down all walls that divide us. It will forge new ties by uniting masses everywhere in one International Communist Workers’ Party.
Communism will end wage slavery. Everyone will share meaningful constructive work and its products, to each according to need.
Communism will liberate masses everywhere to live collectively up to our full human potential.
Long live communism! Mobilize for a communist May Day 2017!
