FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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SEATTLE, WA—“How can you make a difference?” was on the minds of Boeing friends. Even better, some asked how can I make a difference.
Friends started asking these questions as we circulated a Red Flag article. The draft countered the bosses’ excuses and fake remedies for snowballing inequality (see Inequality, Page16).
Meanwhile, the national headquarters of Boeing’s blue-collar union changed the Seattle area district bylaws. Shop stewards are now elected; any union member can run for district president, etc.
The whole union ship is sinking. Local or national, the leadership has no answers to the intensifying attacks generated by the bosses’ crisis.
Their response is to blame each other for hated contract concessions, like the elimination of defined pensions. These “democratic” changes are the national’s attempt to reassert control at the local level and build enthusiasm for a discredited union.
Nonetheless, an honest worker has asked our comrades to run for union positions, to “make a difference.”
The majority of our friends no longer believe you can make a difference in unions. “Look at the Boeing Engineer’s union! [It just sprung a contract extension on its members after secret negotiations that also eliminate defined pensions.] All unions are going down the same path,” said one, arguing against spending time in union positions.

What Can I Do?
“How do I fit into this?” asked our friend who advocated getting union positions, pointing to Red Flag. He honestly wants a revolution and gets excited about advances made by the party.
“First, you join,” answered our comrade.
We have to be prepared for questions like this. The comrade should have added, “…and then you go out and get others to join.”
“But, it’s a thin line I have to tread if I get elected [to a major union position],” our friend thought out loud.
He believes he could help the party more if he was in a “position of influence.” He has advocated for the Party’s ideas in the past and circulated the paper as well.
“You can only really make a difference if you win masses to communist revolution, not by maneuvering in the union in hopes of reform,” continued our comrade.
“In the 60s, we used to say ‘when the revolution comes,’” he reminisced. “But, it didn’t come.”
“How many times in the Black Panther Party did you discuss how communist factories would work?” our comrade asked.
“Never!”
“You and your friends fought very hard for revolutionary change. I think I did the same for many years, but if we don’t talk about changing the material basis of society we can never win! People want to know how a communist society will work before they will give it their all.”
“Well, you can’t have gaps. You have to fight all the time.” he mused as he thought this over.
“That’s right; you consistently have to struggle around communism if you want to make progress. All the other atrocities—like racism, sexism and inequality—serve to guarantee the production-for-profit model survives. Militant reform or anything less than mobilizing for communism won’t get us where we want to go.”
Our comrade told him about the life journey of an 82-year old fighter that joined the party at our South African ICWP conference. Despite years of sellouts and torture our new “old” comrade has the greatest enthusiasm for our party and mobilizing for communism.
As if on cue, another worker criticized the draft article on inequality.
“It’s easy to read, but it doesn’t motivate me enough,” he began in a comradely manner. “What makes you think we can change these factories? Has it ever succeeded before?
Where did these ideas come from? Exactly, how would it work?
“Unless you answer questions like these, I can’t fight for this.” (We made changes to address his concerns.)
Workers are telling us something. Every day in every way we have to develop a mass understanding of communism. There is no way we can maneuver our way to a revolution. Workers must know what they are fighting for and build the organization, our Party, that will lead that fight.

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