Letters to Red Flag, Vol 8, No 6

Communists Educate Masses to End Wage Slavery

My “Facebook friend” R teaches in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We had a major national strike,” he wrote. “But a great deal of the working people did not join the strike because of the fear of being fired. We are helpless against the power of employers. Just now the government is approving a new social security reform and a labor reform too. So, we will be more and more hostages of the will of the powerful businessmen.”

Brazil has over 100 million workers. R is correct that most did not join the general strike – but 39 million did!   When Red Flag readers in Brazil form a collective of the International Communist Workers’ Party we can take advantage of such mass actions to organize for the communist workers’ power that will destroy the businessmen and their capitalist system.

I asked R what happened on May Day.

“I was on the street but the police did not even let it start. There were families, old people, children, teachers, and the police started out of nowhere firing gas and rubber bullets. Here, we lost the right to occupy the streets, but still we try.

“Part of the unions will still occupy the streets,” R continued, “but here we don’t have the habit of protests, going to the streets. As a nation, that was not in our history.”

“Maybe the history to think about is slave rebellions,” I suggested.

“Yes, during the XIX century,” he agreed. “But during the XX century, state policies criminalized social movements, unions, and the left party.”

“The XXI century is still young,” I replied. “Time for a new revolutionary party to emerge. And end wage slavery.”

“I’m not hopeful,” R responded. “It’s an education issue. The masses are away from school and the majority of people dislike reading, dislike any kind of learning, so they are always away from the truth. It’s sad, but here democracy is a tool for the bourgeoisie.”

“Democracy is definitely a tool of the bourgeoisie, here in the US too,” I said. “People with knowledge must take education to the masses. Here too people don’t read and don’t think of themselves as learners and thinkers. But they are in school, or have been. Too often the schools help to stupefy them.

“I keep telling myself to concentrate on the ones who are more open,” I added, hoping he would take the point. “Eventually they will help educate others.”

“If you want, you can call on me,” said R.

I sent him the link to the article about Brazil that we published in the last Red Flag.

—Comrade in the USA

Loud Hailing for the First Time!

The events in the recent past have left an indelible mark in my life as we were pulling out all the stops to ensure that as ICWP we had a successful May Day. We set about going to every street and loud hailing. For me this was the most exciting first time experience of doing the loud hailing.

I could not help but remember what we used to do in the past, going house to house, street to street, literally crisscrossing the country mobilizing for reforms. But I never did loud hailing, so this makes my first time experience loud hailing so special. I will treasure this experience for the rest of my life. Again, what makes it so special is that we are mobilising the masses for communism. Nothing short of communist revolution will smash the bosses’ system.

I am also reminded of my first time experience of writing an article for the Red Flag.

I had never written anything in my life before, which makes this experience even more invaluable. Even traveling abroad for the first time in my life was an awesome experience that I will never forget or take for granted.

All these first time experiences inspire me to do more.

—A Comrade in South Africa

Personal Experience of the Communist School and Obstacles Holding Me Back from Recruiting More People

The communist school was very informative and it went into more detail about the party, the objectives and goals of the party and how we as the party are going to achieve our goals. Dividing people who attended into small groups made it easier for everyone to put his/her input into the discussion and ask questions because not everyone is comfortable to talk in a group of many people.

There were some few things I also took home from the discussions we had; amongst them is the issue of religion and how it is used as one of the tools of capitalism. I will make an example of Christianity as it is the most practiced in our country. In the church there’s a pastor who’s the leader. He’s considered to be above everyone because everyone follows his instructions. In a communist society no one will be considered above another. Individualism will not be promoted. We will all be one working class. There will be no one giving instructions to be followed.

Religion makes it ok for the working class to suffer, justifying it by saying there is life after death, meaning the working class has to suffer so that they can enter heaven where there is no suffering and everything is perfect, which is not true. Religion is also used to justify wars that are caused by individuals to serve the interest of the few.

The second thing I took home from the communist school was the barriers that are put up to divide the working class, which are racism, sexism, etc. because the fear of the capitalists is for the working class to be united and say one thing because that will result in a revolution.

We have a duty as communists to mobilise and recruit the masses to join ICWP. One of the most personal obstacles that is holding me from recruiting more people to join the party is the fact that I don’t read enough, which results in me not being confident enough to engage in debates because people ask questions. For a person to believe what you are saying or to be convinced you have to show confidence in what you’re saying and be able to respond to difficult questions.

—Another Comrade in South Africa

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