The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) invites the workers of the world to join us in marching this May Day for communism.
Communism: A society based on the principle of from each according to their commitment and ability, to each according to their need. A society without money, wages or privileges of any kind. A society without racism, sexism or xenophobia.
A society in which everyone will work – contributing based on their commitment. Collective work will abolish the rigid lines between mental and manual labor. Without capitalism’s necessity to maximize profits, communism will not condemn anyone to unemployment. A society in which life will be filled with gratifying struggle on behalf of workers around the world. Joyful lives worth living.
We don’t have communism yet, but we can still celebrate and mobilize for our bright future!
Capitalism continues to be “horror without end.” Most recently, we’ve seen the escalation of the war in Syria – gas attacks, US bombings– that has killed hundreds of thousands and created more than five million refugees. Add the wars in Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, … and always the danger of a direct confrontation between major imperialists: a third world war.
As if war was not enough, 60 million of us are refugees in camps and on the roads. There are racist police killings and xenophobia from the U.S. to Europe to South Africa and elsewhere. There is relentless unemployment everywhere, from France to El Salvador, the sharpening crisis of overproduction that threatens whole industries, the breakdown of healthcare from Greece to the UK, millions without even clean drinking water from Brazil to Flint, Michigan … we could fill this whole page with a catalogue of such horrors.
But the horror is just one side of the story. All over the world millions are on the move. The rebellion in French Guiana, the general strike in Argentina, the giant global Women’s Marches, the anti-ban airport rallies in the US, history’s biggest strike in India, the “fees\Zuma must fall” uprisings in South Africa, the anti-Labour law demonstrations in France … these could also fill a page.
This rebellious spirit could produce one of the biggest global May Day demonstrations ever. But what should we demonstrate for? For communism!
May Day was established as “International Workers’ Day” in 1889 by the Second Communist International to commemorate the 1886 police attack on a march in Chicago (USA) for the 8-hour day. After the Russian revolution of 1917 it became a communist day of struggle.
Russian and Chinese socialism never fulfilled their promise. Socialism is, after all, state capitalism and can never be anything else, but May Day is still celebrated worldwide.
These days most May Day marches do not put forward communism, and most May Day marchers are not communists. The ICWP plans to change that. You can help: by distributing this Red Flag editorial wherever you are, by marching with us on May Day where possible, by donating money and by joining the ICWP or a Red Flag collective. And you can follow us on Facebook or at our website www.icwpredflag.org and on our blog icwpweb.wordpress.com.
In communism, production will be organized around the needs of our class, not the profits of the bosses. Collective work will replace exploitative jobs. Commitment to our class will replace wage slavery with its harassment, firings, mass unemployment and speed-up.
In communism, everything, not just work, will be reorganized and collectivized. The ICWP will mobilize the masses to provide housing and sanitation (including clean water) for the hundreds of millions of workers who now live in squalor. Housing organized to facilitate collective sharing of necessary chores and maintenance. No mortgages or rent…and no more homeless workers! Even under the harshest conditions, we must begin this process. Society as a whole will be responsible for the care of everyone, children and adults.
In communism, the only wars we’ll fight will be against the capitalists and their supporters. Eventually, we’ll beat them worldwide. Mass armed conflict will end with the demise of the profit motive.
In communism, there will be no countries or borders, no citizenship and no one will be “illegal.” These things are inventions of the capitalists to justify their imperialist ambitions. Those fleeing capitalist rule will be welcomed as comrades.
Learning will be available to everyone throughout their lifetime and integrated with doing (productive labor, including by young people). We will abolish exams, grades, and degrees, substituting collective evaluation for these divisive tests and certifications. Rather than segregate “educated” elites, we will learn how to mobilize masses to provide for our collective needs.
Communism will immediately strike a blow against sexism and racism, so vital to capitalism. Ending production for profits and wage slavery will end capitalist racist/sexist wage differentials. No wages, no wage differentials! Segregation by “race,” religion or ethnicity will be abolished. Racism and sexism won’t disappear overnight, but revolution will lay the basis for the long struggle to wipe them out.
As one young marcher said at a Black Lives Matter march in Seattle (USA) if you want communism “you have to re-think everything.”
How do we get there? There is only one way: armed revolution, led by workers and soldiers that smashes the bosses’ state and establishes communist workers’ power.
This will be a hard fight, but others have made revolutions before us. Winning this fight requires hundreds of millions of communists in the ICWP.
Joining the ICWP or a Red Flag collective brings the revolution a little bit closer. Closer still if you recruit friends, family, co-workers, and fellow soldiers as well.
If you like this paper, and have read and agree with our manifesto “Mobilize the Masses for Communism” (available on our website) you should immediately join a collective with party members and friends or build a new one. Help us make political decisions about how to mobilize for communism. If you are ready to commit to carrying out these collective decisions, join our Party.
Long live Communism! Long live ICWP! Long live May Day!
