FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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Chinese and US imperialists are playing on the edge of conflict near the Spratly Islands. China is building small islands by piling up sand on reefs in the Spratly Island region, islands which are claimed by a number of other Southeast Asian countries. China is constructing airstrips and seaports on these islands to take control of the region by possibly declaring it an air defense identification zone (South China Morning Post, June 7, 2014). The Spratlys are a crucial location for maritime trade and a valuable economic zone for natural resources.
The US Navy has been deliberately antagonizing the Chinese by not respecting the 12-mile buffer zone and bringing its warships within the zone (NY Times 0ct. 26, 2015). The US justifies its actions by claiming that the region is in international waters, which allows them to patrol the area.
Another sailor who is a friend of mine was deployed on one of the warships that was supposed to hover around the 12-mile buffer zone off the Spratlys. For weeks the only objective was to patrol the South China Sea, which meant to pester the Chinese and project US naval power by lurking in the area.
The Chinese warships in return shadowed US ships constantly. At one point they were being shadowed by a Chinese warship and another US ship arrived and shadowed the Chinese ship. It wasn’t long until another Chinese warship was shadowing the new US ship. So a US ship was trailed by a Chinese ship that was trailed by another US ship that, in turn, again trailed by another Chinese ship. It was an uneasy situation.
Between US and Chinese warships there were short, tense and awkward conversations, where nothing important was carefully said. The US sailors would ask them about the weather and they would respond. The Chinese sailors would ask the US sailors how long they planned on being in the area and they would say they were just patrolling.
Most of the sailors had good reasons to not want to patrol the South China Sea. For one, they didn’t want to deploy away from their families and put themselves into harm’s way just to start trouble in the Spratlys. They were aware that patrolling the Spratlys was a potentially volatile situation, where a wrong move could lead to serious problems. The general feeling was to head back to port and avoid needless trouble and danger.
Recently China has started playing a similar game with the US. For the first time, China began patrolling international waters off the Alaskan coast, coincidentally or not, during an unusual three-day visit from President Obama (NY Times, Sept. 2, 2015).
Sailors realize that going out looking for trouble in the Spratlys has nothing to do with keeping their friends and families safe. This isn’t our fight; this is the fight between the two most powerful capitalist powers, and workers, as always, will be used to fight it. This is the politics of imperialism, not of working-class sailors and their families.
Sailors are willing to fight for the real things that matter — our families and friends and real freedom. This is not capitalist “human rights” that don’t prevent capitalism from beating us down in the ever-recurring economic crises, or phony freedom through voting republican or democrat. We aren’t going to put our lives on the line so some admiral in Norfolk can use us to start a fight with the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Capitalism’s history has shown that it inevitably leads to wars. These wars destroy massive amounts of society, environment and people. The decision of every sailor is summed up in an earlier Red Flag article (Vol. 6 #20) on the Spratlys: “Will the working class die to perpetuate the power of our masters? Or will we fight for communism?” Our fight needs to be directed against the system that corners us into fights that aren’t worth fighting. The real fight is against capitalism and for communism. In this important fight sailors and soldiers are essential for our success.

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