FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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The Business of Capitalist Healthcare

At the beginning of the year there was a mass march in Mexico City of nurses from the public health sector who are demanding the “professionalization” of their careers and future jobs for those who graduate in this area. Nursing and medical students from the National Polytechnic Institute are in negotiations with the government so that they meet their demands to have a job when they leave school.
Having friends who work in the health sector allows one to have discussions about the situation they are experiencing and the need for communism. One friend commented that the privatization of certain services like the dining room and cleaning the public hospitals means that the workers are employed by a contractor and not by the social security system as before. At the same time, there is greater pressure and control of the workers under this model. According to official statements, the work becomes more efficient.
Another friend said that he agreed with this. He doesn’t work in the health sector but he realizes that the private service is better. He works for an information company and sees that when they work in this model, the people give better results. However, another person responded, that could be but this increases the stress and bad mood at work, and fosters competition among the workers and people get sick with this rhythm of life.
In the case of the nurses, the lack of instruments means that the patients do not get the medical care they need and they blame the doctors and nurses for bad treatment. In some cases, these are fired without being at fault. The bosses take advantage of this situation to push reforms.
These struggles, although inspiring and showing the workers’ anger, should not be a struggle for reforms which will not solve the workers’ problems. We shouldn’t fall into the capitalist illusion that the system can be reformed to satisfy workers’ needs.
Whether health care is private or public, it is capitalist healthcare. We workers must fight, but so that the capitalist bosses cease to profit from our labor. In a communist society, health will not be a business, nor will it be the privilege of a few.
We workers will learn basic questions of health and nutrition to reduce disease and the contradictions (illnesses) that arise will be resolved. Millions of workers will mobilize to guarantee the health of everyone—without any money or profits — making sure that all the instruments needed are made and used for workers’ health.
In the march many carried signs demanding to be treated like “professionals,” but all
workers need to be treated with dignity. In Communism, workers won’t be divided into “professionals” and others. Everyone will work with our hands and will learn the theory of healthcare. Everyone’s work will be valued. 
We will not compete among ourselves. Evils like stress in these times will be isolated cases. We will all build our communist society; we will all be responsible to take care of our class brothers and sisters, in healthcare, nutrition, development of skills, etc. Workers of the world, let’s unite to storm heaven, let’s fight for Communist Revolution.
--Comrade in Mexico

The obvious futility of elections

Globally, most people do not trust politicians. Political scandals, conspiracies and corruption are the current currency in all countries and in all the electoral parties. The majority of electoral politicians do not count on the support of their own voters. Many think that politics necessarily generates corruption (it is known that “Power Corrupts”) and others are not going to vote because they think elections will not bring important changes.
The lack of participation in the elections is a “vote of no confidence” against the bosses’ system. The people who got disappointed by the corrupt politicians are looking for politicians worthy of their trust. If they find them, the time will come when the new ones will also disappoint them.
Some think that a dictatorship avoids corruption and is therefore preferable to a representative system. Others know that corruption brings more corruption, that a representative system finds no alternative. They get disappointed and leave the running of society to the politicians. This makes things worse since the running of society stays in the hands of individuals who only care about themselves and not for society.
 “Politics” is the making of decisions for a whole society. When the citizens decide for themselves what society will do, there is no need for these politics. The politicians are representatives of the citizens. When the citizens decide that they represent themselves, the representatives have no authority. The authority to decide for others is the origin of corruption in politics. Those who want to get this power will do everything possible to win the favor of the true owners of power.
 “Everything” includes illegal acts, both ethically and legally. Misuse of authority is corruption, either because the person who has the authority was not authorized to use it or because he did not use the authority when he should have used it.
Then, what should the population and the working class do? The only road is the building of a communist society where the entire people decide their course.
—A Comrade in El Salvador

Pacifist and Humanist?
Red Flag Reader, the writer of the letter “Charlie Hebdo: Kept Up the Fight,” (Red Flag vol. 6, #. 1) raises as one of his/her points that “Charlie is also…deeply pacifist and humanist.”
We in ICWP are against pacifism and humanism. We call for the destruction of capitalism through a revolution led by soldiers and workers, and that necessitates violence. The world’s ruling classes have always demonstrated, and are now demonstrating, their willingness to murder millions and more millions of workers in their unending quest for world dominance. These rulers will never peacefully turn over power to the working class: we have to fight for that power. Humanists like pacifism because their philosophy is that we should all get along: workers and bosses should live together in harmony.
How does that work out in practice? Well, what it means is that we workers are supposed to peacefully accept our exploitation and oppression…and that includes  “peacefully” obeying our bosses’ orders to kill our working class brothers and sisters in other countries for the bosses’ system. We say “No!” Turn the guns around on the ruling classes of the world and on their officers! Destroy capitalism and establish communism!
—A comrade in ICWP

 

For a Communist Fight Against Racism, Now and in the Future

Our Party study group discussed the recent articles on racism in Red Flag. We were four Party members and four close friends, women and men, black and latino/a and white. Everyone agreed that racism as a system arose with capitalism. It continues today because the capitalists use their mass media, schools, and state power to keep it going. A comrade emphasized that nationalism helps to build racism, not to fight it.

We also agreed that communism can end racism by destroying its material basis, the capitalist wage system. We talked a lot about a letter to RF (v. 5 #23) that argued against the idea (presented in an earlier article) of a protracted struggle against racism after workers take power.
The letter said that in the process of mobilizing for communism, mass consciousness would change dramatically. We agree. That process has to include fighting racism hard, now, as part of building mass communist consciousness. But we still think the original article was right.
We discussed the period when communism has been established in some places but not everywhere. Class enemies will use capitalist strongholds to fight harder than ever to re-establish the old system. Racism will still be one of their main tools.
We will have to use communist workers’ power to defeat these enemies, internally and externally. We don’t know how long it will take before communism is in place everywhere. One comrade said that the numbers of people we will need to mobilize to win communism will leave many people—probably more! – who are not yet won politically. Fighting racist ideas and prejudices will still be part of the continuing work to win them, too, to become active Party members.
As masses join the Party, we should expect them to bring their contradictions, including racism, with them.
The fight against racist ideas will sharpen before it eventually disappears.
We also talked about residential segregation and other aspects of racist capitalism that will not all disappear overnight. This will take a lot of political struggle.
And people will have different needs, based in part on how racism affected their lives, work, and health under capitalism. Winning everyone to communist “distribution according to need” will probably demand political struggle against racist ideas and stereotypes.
There’s a lot more that we haven’t discussed yet. But we are all confident that the masses can make communism work and put an end to racism. The main struggles that continue in this group are to expand the regular distribution of Red Flag and to recruit some very good friends to the Party.
—a Southern California collective

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