The Masses’ Security Will Be The Basis of Communist Society
June 5, 2018—Since April 18, the government of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has been dealing with a mass uprising of men and women workers and students. They are angry about the decree of Changes to Social Security (pensions). This would have lowered the monthly payment that pensioners receive and would have increased the percentage that is deducted from the already miserable wages of those who work. The government had to retract the decree, but the demonstrations continue.
At times like these, when the capitalists are grabbing each other by the neck, we workers can and must take our own path of struggle, the struggle for communism. We must crush both bands of murdering thieves and exploiters.
Our alternative must be to create a new communist society, without bosses or exploitation. The solution is not to take out one executioner and put in another, but instead to destroy capitalism and build a new way of life. In communism, there won’t be Social Security programs because production will be to meet the needs of life. This will be the basis of society.
We know very well that these austerity measures are dictated by the imperialists who control the International Monetary Fund and the banks who loan money to governments. The policy is to force governments to reduce spending to pay the interest on the loans. On May 8 of this year, when the new President of Costa Rica took office, he was already expecting a strike by public workers against similar attacks against the working class’ pensions. The worldwide capitalist economic crisis is sharpening. These are only two examples.
Nicaragua is one more point in the inter-imperialist struggle in which China and Russia are on one side and the US is on the other. After the revolution of 1979, the US lost part of its political control of Nicaragua as its indisputable lackey. The Chinese imperialists have tried to enter the Nicaraguan arena with the now-paralyzed plan of building a canal and maquilas. The Russian imperialists have sent aid through Cuba, which sent hundreds of doctors, and through Venezuela, which sent cheaper gasoline.
Some workers see the small changes that the government of Nicaragua has made as signs of reform to the unbridled capitalism of the ex-dictator Somoza. They only see two alternatives: the Sandinistas or the capitalist opposition. And they think it’s better to support the “lesser evil.”
But capitalism under the Sandinista Front, the FMLN in El Salvador, Chavism in Venezuela, or the African National Congress in South Africa is as harmful as any other capitalism. These governments are the product of the struggles for national liberation, mainly led by the policy of the old communist/socialist movement which sought to reform capitalism instead of fighting directly for communism.
But communism continues to be the only real alternative. It is the only system where the life of the workers is primary, and where exploitation and the bosses’ profits will be things of the past.
This struggle in Nicaragua creates a great opportunity to discuss communist politics with our co-workers, friends and relatives as the alternative to the ravages created by capitalism. The friends who read Red Flag in Nicaragua must take the initiative to join the International Communist Workers’ Party and begin to build it massively. The masses of workers and students can see that there are no “lesser evil” bosses, and that our struggle must be for communism.
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