Header image 

International Communist Workers Party

line decor
   To Contact ICWP, send an email to: icwp@anonymousspeech.com           
line decor

Español

About ICWP

Red Flag newspaper

Article Series from Red Flag

Communist Dialectics

Home

Letters to Red Flag

BIGGER    SMALLER

This is the paper of the working class. We get no funding from the capitalists, their foundations or NGOs. Please give generously to help pay for the costs of production and distribution.

Diary of an ICWP organizer in South Africa.

On Monday I was visited by my long-time friend who is a machine operator at General Motors (GM) who has been asking for his ICWP T-shirt for the past 2 weeks and finally I gave it to him.
 I had to go far to get it because the T-shirts are at a comrade’s house which is far from where I live. But I just had to fetch it because the comrade was asking for it almost everyday for the past 3 weeks and I was so happy he finally got it.
We had a long chat. After talking about communism and capitalism, this comrade is already mobilizing in his work place and totally agrees that communism is the only way for the working class and it’s gonna be a hard job.
As usual the capitalist system is always exploiting the working class in every possible way. Just yesterday I had a long conversation with a veteran worker of Transnet who has been working for Transnet for almost 30 years. The comrade told me about the exploitation that is going on.
Their safety shoes are of the worst quality and very cheap so as to increase the capitalists’ profits and are damaging their feet. You can’t wear them for a long time because they will damage your feet. Capitalism doesn’t care about the health and safety of the workers. They care about maximising profits at the expense of the working class.
As far as the case of manganese temporary workers who lost their jobs at Transnet because of the strike they were forced to participate in, the case is still on but looks favourable for the capitalists.
 It is said the Transnet managers and officials do not attend the court dates and apparently there are rumours that the Transnet bosses have bribed the CCMA (commission for conciliation, mediation, arbitration) to favour the case against the fired workers. The comrade also commented that the union works hand in hand with Transnet bosses. It doesn’t serve and fight for workers. Their union representatives drive expensive cars and live in big houses.
I got a new article from RF and met a general construction worker just two hours ago. He was mobilised by some one I mobilised. He wants to join and read all our material. I have organised material for him such as Mobilise the Masses for Communism and Red Flag as he is familiar with our paper. He said he wants to read it all the time before he goes to sleep because he finds the paper very interesting and he wants to join ICWP.
 I told him he must just pop in at my place soon, as he knows where I live. So soon he will come and fetch the communism material that I will print for him. I will print all he needs and give him Red Flags.
We had a long chat about communist revolution and ICWP but since he was going to work I had to cut the chat short, as he was so into our discussion that he forgot the time. I didn’t want him to be late.
--South African comrade

Class Warfare in the US
The US government’s budget “fight” isn’t much of a fight.  Even liberal darling Elizabeth Warren’s objection to a provision allowing more bank bailouts is basically a distraction.
To understand what goes on in Washington you have to see that it is class warfare. The few with the most financial resources control the government. They keep the many divided and ignorant that they are even in a war. The few take as much as they can. When they are confronted by an inchoate mass that is so furious they might take to the streets or otherwise act on their collective interests, the few make concessions sufficient to pacify the many.
The outrage over the bailout has subsided. The Occupy movement has been subdued. The left is focused on police violence. It is time for the rulers to take back the concessions. The fight between the demolicans and the republicrats is smoke and mirrors. To criticize the democrats for lacking spine is to misjudge the nature of the beast.
—California reader

No More Rich and Poor: Equality for All
The capitalist system has prevailed for many years, so it has brought serious problems for society. Of course, the working class is the most affected, since wages are barely enough for food and clothing, while the millionaires are surrounded with luxuries and comforts.
Worse, there are places where people die of hunger while people who have everything go to the best restaurants, ask for the most expensive food and wine, and still waste them.
Another very relevant aspect is the lack of clothing. In some parts of the world people wear old rags or clothes they find in garbage cans. The millionaires go three or four times a week to buy the best brands in the stores where clothes are very expensive, and throw everything they no longer want in the garbage.
Another aspect is the lack of roads in many places, where people have to walk for several hours while a few have private airplanes. Also, many people in the world die because of the bad health care they receive and for lack of money to go to a hospital or to be attended by a good doctor, while those who have money can even buy organs to be cured.
Due to these and other things that have been mentioned, there has been dissent. People go into the streets to demonstrate. But even so their rights are not respected. That is why I give my most sincere thanks and congratulations to the people who had the magnificent idea of forming the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP).  And why not also thank those who have joined this party! And in the same spirit I invite all those people who have not joined the party to do so now. 
We all know that carrying out this joyful task has not been at all easy, but if we join forces and ideas, surely everything will turn out well.  And then, yes, we will be able to live in a world that we all dream of, a world of equality.
Let’s continue forward, ICWP, let’s go for the world of equality, no more rich and no more poor. We are all humans and deserve to be respected and treated without any distinction. ICWP lives and the struggle continues, let’s fight for a communist government.
--Comrade in Mexico

The Christmas Truce:  100 Years Ago, Soldiers Refused to Kill Each Other

My dad was almost 50 when I was born and I’m 70 now, so you can see how stories from my childhood stretch back many years. I grew up with one story that no-one talked about at the time but has since been  made into a film.
Born in Liverpool, England, my dad had volunteered to join the Army during World War 1. Among the many stories he told us about his experiences was one about playing for England versus Germany in no-man’s land (the land separating the enemy trenches) on Christmas Day, 1914.
The troops were mad. They had been left in the trenches while the officers had traveled to a town behind the front for a Christmas party. Organized by communists, the soldiers in both trenches got together and played three football games. My dad, a goalkeeper, played for England’s 3rd team. They lost 6 to 3.
“You lost! You let in 6 goals!” we would tease him.
“We all won,” my dad replied, “No-one fired a shot at each other until January second.”
By that time the brass, who were of course furious, were able to disperse and transfer the organizers away from the area.
My dad’s story differs from the official “Christmas Truce” story in many ways, but it was told to us long before the present story surfaced in public. It suggests either that there were other incidents of fraternization or that my dad knew how to tell a story to make a political point, which he was never shy of doing.
One of the other conclusions he drew from his war experiences was an emphatic, “No son of mine is going to University!” His argument was clear. “Every officer who ordered us out of the trenches to charge enemy lines had either been to University or intended to go to University after the war. No son of mine,” my dad argued, “is going to be that stupid!”
--History student

First Article