FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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The Iran-Saudi Arabia feud is threatening to inflame and destabilize the oil-rich Middle East even more. The region still holds more than half the earth’s easily recoverable oil deposits and produces about 26 million barrels of oil daily, or more than one-fourth of the world’s daily consumption.
Oil is still the lifeblood of capitalist-imperialist industrial society and their military might is nothing without it. However, it would take a major war between Iran and Saudi Arabia to disrupt the flow of this oil. Neither country is ready for this. However, their feuding could adversely affect the plans of the world’s imperialists fighting for world supremacy.
Chinese imperialists have sent President Xi on a five day visit to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt. He is going as “peace maker” to calm the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
This role used to be played by US imperialism. Xi’s trip vividly shows an ascending Chinese Imperial Dragon at the expense of a declining US Imperial Eagle.
Chinese imperialists want stability. China is the main importer of Saudi and Iranian oil, which accounts for 25% of China’s oil imports. For now, they want to guarantee their oil supply as cheaply as possible to make their manufactured goods more competitive, maximizing their profits.
Unlike what the US did, though, they are not making Saudi Arabia the cornerstone of their Middle Eastern strategy. That spot is reserved for Iran. In addition to investing heavily in Iran’s oil industry, China sees Iran as crucial to its Silk Road plan to build railways, pipelines and other infrastructure from China to Europe. This network of bullet trains will be a faster and cheaper route for exporting Chinese goods and importing crucially needed resources and transporting armies during war time.
Long term, they are preparing for the eventual conflict with US imperialism. In war, the Silk Road will allow China to keep exporting its manufactured goods, and to import by land the oil and strategic resources to keep its military machine going.
This is China’s escape from the US Navy-dominated Malacca Straight and Pacific Ocean sea lanes through which 98% of China’s exports and imports must now pass, including oil.
Iran as China’s ally in war could also invade or support an invasion of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province where 2 million Shiites live and where 90% of Saudi’s oil production takes place. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the Shiite cleric executed by the Saudis, was  from this province. Two of his crimes were his insistence in rousing Shia youth there for separatism, and vowing to end the rule of the House of Saud. He was supported by some Iranian clergy.
What made this situation more dangerous is that with the low price of oil due to its overproduction, the Saudi rulers have fewer funds to bribe the masses, who will be more willing to rise up against them.

Crisis of Overproduction Another Capitalist Curse on the World’s Workers
Capitalist laws dictate that every capitalist-imperialist must fight for the whole market or its lions’ share to make maximum profit and shut out their rivals. This leads to the crisis of overproduction which inevitably leads to wars and world war—this is the logic of capitalism.
Thus, “abundance” under capitalism becomes a curse. Today more oil is being produced than can be sold for a profit. Saudi Arabia has been flooding the oil market. They want to deny more market share to Iran, vying with it to be the dominant regional power. Without US and UN sanctions, Iranian oil will increasingly be on the market, along with US and Russian oil. Oil prices dipped lower on the Iranian news.
Workers in all oil producing countries will face huge racist cuts in their standards of living. Their anger and militancy will explode. Will they be won to fight for the profits and empires of the capitalists-imperialists, or will they mobilize for communism to put an end to the horrors of capitalism?

The answer lies in the hands of ICWP members and Red Flag readers. It is up to us to take communist ideas to these workers and all workers, soldiers and youth. All Red Flag readers need to join ICWP. Where it exists, they should participate in its activities. Where it doesn’t exist, they should start to build it by circulating Red Flag among coworkers, friends and family and recruiting them. They should also help translate Red Flag and Mobilize the Masses for Communism (MMC) into Arabic, Farsi and every other language.
In communism, there will be no markets, no profits, and therefore no fighting over market share. Workers of the world will cooperate to develop and share energy and all resources for the good of the international working class. Communism is based on collectivity and cooperation. Workers have no need to fight each other over anything.
Unlike the bosses, workers the world over have survived by sharing scarce needed resources with each other. Masses mobilized for communism will bring this cooperation to its highest level so that everything is organized, planned, produced and shared based on human need in a world without racism, borders, nations or classes

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