FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!International Communist Workers Party |
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SEATTLE, WA, January 3 — Boeing workers
were set up to lose the battle against the concessionary
contract. Industrial workers everywhere have
much to learn from this two-month struggle.
Our Red Flag networks in the plants, and other
comrades, took modest steps toward winning the war
against capitalist exploitation. Our final victory depends
on expanding the struggle for communist answers
with our new friends on the shop floor.
The many tentacles of capitalist control were on
display for all to see during this contract battle.
This pact chains 32,000 blue-collar workers for another
11 years without the "legal right" to strike.
New-hire wages will fall below the minimum wage
during the last years of this contract. Defined pensions
are gone while medical costs skyrocket. Wages
will increase a paltry one percent every two years, far
below inflation.
The contract extension was accepted by a margin
of only
600 votes
out of 23,900 cast. After a similar contract was
rejected 2 to 1 in early November, the bosses
brought out their big guns.
Every politician that the union had supported
lined up to condemn our initial rejection on all
the media outlets. The governor, the US senator,
the local mayors and state representatives all demanded
we cave into Boeing's extortion the second
time around.
The politicians and the media set us up, but so
did our own union officials. The international
union betrayed us, but so did the local leadership
and the ideology of trade unionism. The pro-business
"right to work state" crowd did its worst, but
so did the liberals and fake-left, "we need a more
militant union" crowd.
Hypocrisy was also on display for all to see.
The local union administrative assistant Jim
Bearden criticized "the politicians, the media and
others" who had "no right to get into our business"
when he announced the final vote tally.
But the union enabled these politicians with
$millions of our union dues. Then they absolved
themselves of all responsibility when these office
holders attacked us.
Despite Bearden's words, the union will return
to the election game because the pro-capitalist
strategy inherent in trade unionism will allow no
other course.
The union preached partnership with the Boeing
bosses for decades. Then they acted surprised
when the rank-and-file was caught unprepared
for the viciousness of these very same capitalists.
The front-page article in the union's contract
vote special edition said, "We can share in the
company's prosperity and make everyone a winner."
Talk about leading people into a trap!
Breaking Through
The company made record profits this year. It
has the biggest backlog in history. When asked
why they are demanding take-backs now,
the bosses replied that their profits came
from past orders.
The company says it is selling new orders
at a fifty percent discount. They are
trying to lock up commitments before new
manufacturers like China come online. The
only way they can make profits at these
prices is by attacking us.
Such is the nature of capitalism: too
many bosses making too many products
that can't be sold.
Trade unions, contracts and votes cannot
deal with this naked capitalist exploitation.
The communist solution is to replace production
based on profit and sale with production that fulfills
the requirements of our class. Collective
struggle to produce for our material, cultural and
psychological needs must replace exploitation.
Over a thousand Boeing workers have read
Red Flag articles advocating communist answers
like this over the last two months, including hundreds
in the last two days. Our networks have expanded
25%, chiefly among new hires. A few
have ordered subscriptions, while others have
come to social activities and committed themselves
to come to our next meeting.
All this will help in the long struggle to replace
legal economic strikes with illegal political
strikes against capitalism and for communism.
As masses around the world rebel, we will have
to push aside the traditional trade union approach.
We will have to learn how to fight all the tentacles
of capitalist control and cut off the monster's
head by mobilizing the masses for
communism.
Join us to make this happen.
Next issue will feature expanded communist
discussions on the shop floor.
January 7, 2014—More than 400,000 mostly women garment workers
in Cambodia are in rebellion against their working and living conditions.
The general strike of the 600,000 people who work in the garment industry
has as its main demand a wage increase to $160 a month. The average wage
now is $80, and the government and the bosses are offering an increase to
only $95 a month. These workers labor for multi-million dollar companies
like GAP, Nike, H&M, Adidas and Puma.
The strike and the massive demonstrations of students and other workers
supporting it have been attacked by the government. Several people have
died, and many others have been arrested and tortured. Nevertheless, the
anger and courage of the workers are much stronger than capitalist terror.
The working and living conditions of these workers are similar to those
of garment workers in Bangladesh, Mexico, El Salvador and Los Angeles.
We must support these workers by fighting to destroy the capitalist system
and build a communist society based on political commitment and producing
collectively to satisfy the needs of the international working class.
A new comrade in South Africa talked to us
about building the revolutionary communist
movement there. This is the second part of his
response.
Revolutionary greetings, comrades and
friends! Let me take this opportunity to thank
you (ICWP) for welcoming me into your ranks.
We can build the party in South Africa by forming
party cells in each of the nine provinces
using Red Flag as a source and guiding document.
We will write articles for Red Flag about
South Africa in every issue from now on.
As you can see, the African National Congress-
led alliance and government have been
administering capitalist rule on behalf of the
Randlords (the bosses who control the diamond
and gold mining industries) and Wall Street for
the past nineteen years. The current National
Development Plan is the harshest form of
Growth, Employment and Redistribution plan
and all other previous policies to date.
Having established these party cells, we
must make sure that they are functional to organize
and popularize our party. In a nutshell,
we must look at the Russian experience,
amongst others. The revolutionary theory
teaches us that, 'no two systems can co-exist;
if this were to happen, one system is bound to
read the obituary of the other.'
Seventy five years after the Russian Revolution,
we've all witnessed the dramatic collapse
of the Soviet Union in 1991-92. The experience
in China is that the only revolutionary
class capable of leading the revolution to its
conclusion is the working class. Socialism
kept the wage system and that brought capitalism
back with a vengeance.
The goals of finally achieving communism
are concrete and realizable. Capitalism is a crisis-
ridden system. It plunges from one crisis to
the other. It is incapable of solving the socioeconomic
condition it creates. If it cannot solve
the crisis it creates, it must perish with it.
I think that it is the revolutionary duty of
every cadre to take the revolutionary ideas to
the masses and that is inevitable. Let me say
that the revolutionary ideas/theory must have a
grip or hold on the masses. Together they form
a conquering force. A material force can conquer
a material force. Revolutionary ideas/theory
having a grip or hold on the masses become
a material conquering force to defeat a capitalist
material force.
We must struggle against the obstacles to
building a communist movement, which are
our own weaknesses as a movement. We must
identify our own weaknesses, confront and deal
with them and not hide them or pretend they do
not exist.
I can contribute in the struggle by using the
invaluable experience one has accumulated
over more than three decades of struggle.