Let’s Burn Capitalism, Let’s Build Communism
On July 7, one of the three buildings of the Ministry of Finance in El Salvador burned down during work hours. In the last edition of Red Flag we wrote about the fire in the Grenfell apartments in London, showing this was a capitalist attack against the lives of the working class. Now we see workers in El Salvador in the similar situation in a different context. With the “left” in the government, the life of the workers continues being in danger, including those who work in state offices.
The fire started on the fourth floor, then continued to floors five, six and seven. This caused people to move to the higher floors until they reached the roof. Desperation, caused by the smoke and the speed with which the fire spread throughout the building, made a young man decide to jump to save his life. He survived. Eighteen people were burned; one of them is in serious condition and one woman worker died. This was the final toll of victims.
These events are common in capitalist societies. In Bangladesh, London, or El Salvador, the working class suffers the consequences of a system that does not value human life. However, this event has the characteristic of happening under a government that is supposedly on the left, a government that has no intention and will not be able to resolve the contradictions of capitalism because the government itself is capitalist.
The statements of the president and the rest of the leadership only refer to an electrical failure and emphasize that no documents were lost. “I don’t think that this is a crime or terrorism. It has been an electrical problem,” Minister Cáceres told the press.
Isn’t the lack of an infrastructure that guarantees the lives of the workers the fault of those who dominate and administer this system? Isn’t that a crime against the workers?
In the one building alone that burned, 1200 people work. None of the three buildings has emergency stairs, in spite of the fact that the workers asked for them in 2009, at the beginning of the first fmln government.
The fmln cannot and will not ensure a better life for the working class. Their reformist line is far removed even from the failed efforts of socialism in the last century and in the first decades of the present one. Not even the “radicalization of this process” can put an end to capitalism.
The working class organized in its communist party will be able to carry out a revolution that eliminates wages, the market, and production for profit, and organizes the communist economy that meets workers’ needs, which will vary depending on the historical context in which we find ourselves. In this way, the workers, with the organization of the Party, can ensure that every worksite will be safe.
Organizing for communism is becoming more important every day. The failed processes of socialism, now in the 21st Century, show us that to guarantee the integrity of all of our class, it is necessary to eliminate the material basis of capitalism. This is not an easy task; it is a process that requires all our effort. The masses have always aspired to stop living in a system that attacks our lives in so many ways. Let’s have confidence in them! Let’s advance towards Communism.
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