SEATTLE (USA), April 16 — Thousands marched with Black Lives Matter to “speak out for an economy that works for all.” The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) was there to say that the only economy that works for workers is a communist economy.
One young man wanted to know more about how such an economy would work. By the end of the discussion, the comrade distributing Red Flag had talked about several aspects of communism.
“I agree with most of what you say,” the young man said. “That’s what I want.” After a short pause he added, “To imagine what communism would be you really have to re-think everything!”
“You got that right!” our comrade agreed. The young man took a paper and began reading it immediately.
Another guy, a veteran who had just left the army, was intrigued by the articles about turning the guns on the capitalists. He wanted to organize to leaflet the nearby army base. He gave us his contact information so we could send him more literature on organizing inside the bosses’ army. He too took a paper and vowed to catch up with us at May Day.
We distributed almost all our papers we brought and about 50 copies of the ICWP pamphlet “To End Racism, Mobilize the Masses for Communism.”
The weekend before, we had a party Potluck dinner. Two topics of discussion stood out.
First, a comrade teacher helped get the union delegate assembly to vote for a strike on May Day. The union leadership insisted the resolution be brought up for a general vote. If it was a normal vote, it would have passed.
But the union leaders would not allow this to happen. They refused to call a strike unless 75% voted for it.
“That’s just like our union!” said a Boeing worker at the dinner. Others at the factory had identical reactions, showing their disgust with union politics.
A comrade suggested the teacher show the May Day poster from South Africa to his students. He was trying to get something for May Day going at his school anyway. Students are key!
Second, a new comrade at the dinner has many relatives from Syria. Naturally she was appalled by the continued carnage (as were we all). “Workers have been fleeing Syria [for years now] by the hundreds of thousands and it seems nobody is willing to help!” she said in frustration.
We talked about our communist vision of a world without borders and nations: how communism would welcome every worker, everywhere.
We downloaded an English version of our global leaflet on the refugee crisis from the ICWP website. She’s going to get some of her relatives to translate it into Arabic to send to the Middle East.
Then we discussed how modern wars are a result of the capitalist profit motive. Even more importantly, we can finally end these wars after we’ve defeated all the capitalists and had communist production for need, not profit. Then she agreed to sell Red Flag at May Day.
We can’t let up for a minute. On to May Day and beyond!
