FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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“Why do you concentrate on LA MTA to distribute your paper?” asked an LA MTA bus operator to a comrade distributing Red Flag.
“Because, you are part of the industrial working class. Industrial workers and soldiers are key to revolution. Industrial workers produce and transport everything in society. If they stop working, nothing moves. That’s why we also concentrate on Boeing workers, garment workers in Los Angeles, and industrial workers in South Africa and El Salvador. Also, industrial workers in motion could influence other sectors like the soldiers, intellectuals, and students,” answered our comrade. 
Worker: I see. Things are really getting bad here. We make close to $30 an hour and I can barely survive.
Red Flag: Things will get even worse; especially as the US bosses prepare to fight China and Russia.
W: But, nobody likes the US. They have no allies.
RF: Well, the Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s recent trip to Washington was to strengthen the Japan-US military alliance.
W: I don’t think it will happen after what the US did to them during WWII. They dropped two atomic bombs on them.
RF: It seems that the Japanese rulers are divided. The sector Abe represent supports the US.
W: Could be, but France is a question mark and Germany will ally with Russia. Of the great powers, England might be the only one allying with the US.
RF: England is not much of a power anymore. This isolation makes the US even more dangerous. They will resort to nuclear weapons. But, things will be very different from WWI and WWII when not even a shot was fired on the continental US. Today, Russian and Chinese missiles can easily reach all major US population centers.
W: In a situation like that, I think people here will go crazy. They will start killing each other.
RF: That is why we distribute Red Flag to give workers a revolutionary outlook. We would mobilize workers here to make a communist revolution, to take away those weapons of mass destruction from the bosses and appeal to workers in Russia and China, and all countries, to do the same.
W: I don’t think that will happen.
RF: Well, the Russian and Chinese workers made revolutions under similar circumstances, during WWI and WWII, respectively. They can do it again. They also don’t want to be incinerated for the profits and empires of their imperialist masters.
W: The Chinese are not very trustworthy. See what they did to the Dalai Lama. They stabbed him in the back. They forced him to leave his country.
RF: The Chinese working class is not to blame. The Chinese government is a capitalist one just like in the rest of the world. They are our enemies, but the Chinese and Russian workers are our class brothers and sisters.
W: As you know, the Dalai Lama is a very devoted Buddhist. He fights for world peace. He regularly addresses the United Nations calling for peace in the world.
RF: He is not doing humanity any favors. There could never be peace as long as capitalism exists. The capitalists wage war against workers 24x7. Every year millions die of starvation and treatable deceases – millions are homeless, unemployed, billions are forced to live on less than $2 a day. This unending list of horrors can only be ended by destroying capitalism and building a communist society based on production for human need, not for profits.
W: It’s been nice talking to you, but I have to go. Thanks for the newspaper. Have a nice day.
RF: Thanks. Have a nice day too.
Before departing, we introduced ourselves. On driving out, the operator rolled down his car window and asked, “Can you give me three more newspapers? I’ll share them with my friends and neighbors.”
Slowly but surely, workers – especially industrial workers – and soldiers are beginning to contemplate communism as a viable alternative to inhumane capitalism-imperialism.
Capitalism is like a shark: it smells workers’ blood and goes in for the kill. That’s precisely what’s happening at LA MTA Division 5. Management is taking advantage of mistakes made by a mechanic with 23 years seniority to try to fire him.
Red Flag has written about this mechanic before. He is meticulous in his inspections. Therefore, many of the buses he inspects end up spending more time in the shop for repairs. MTA doesn’t like this. They want the buses on the streets making money. They could care less about the drivers’ and the public’s safety.
However, recently this mechanic made a couple of SMALL mistakes that management claims are SERIOUS. As punishment, management suspended him for one week without pay. This will speed up his termination process.
This worker is very controversial
He has a lot of problems in his private life, which impact his performance at work and his relationship with his coworkers. His individualism, indiscipline and stubbornness have exhausted his coworkers’ patience.
Some don’t think we should publicize his case. We disagree. He is not being targeted by management for his private life or for how he relates to his coworkers. He is being targeted for sending too many buses to repair.
Serious mistakes?
“That is nothing serious. I and other mechanics have made similar mistakes and nothing happened to us because we were not being targeted by management,” commented a mechanic from another division on hearing about the case.
On one occasion, the mechanic changed the motor oil of a bus and put on a defective filter. He forgot to start the motor to double-check his work. When the next shift started the bus, all the oil spilled out.
On a second occasion, after draining the old oil from the motor, he forgot to refill it. The next shift discovered that it had no oil.
Both mistakes were easily fixed. Was anyone injured or killed? NO! Were the buses damaged? NO! What’s more, this couldn’t have happened because a special mechanism shuts off their motors for protection, when they have no oil.
Red Flag’s issue is with capitalism and its threat: Obey us or be fired!
This shows the inhumane nature of the dictatorship of capital. NO job means NO money, NO money means NO life or a Bad life. Its main purpose is to keep us from rebelling and organizing against them – especially from organizing for a communist revolution.
This dreadful threat hangs daily over the heads of billions of workers worldwide. It stresses and drives many to an early grave – including many MTA workers, like the operator from Division 1 who died from a heart attack a few weeks ago.
Our task as communists is to build the revolutionary communist consciousness of our class to see and act upon the need to destroy capitalism. The attack against this mechanic, whether we like him or not, is an attack against our class.
We are at their mercy because we own nothing but our labor power which we must sell to them in order to survive. This enslaves us to them.
This was no historical accident. When the capitalists overthrew the feudal kings and nobles, who ruled before them, they purposely created our class: a property-less class that they could enslave and exploit.
We need to and can organize to smash their wage slavery
Why should they have the power to enslave and exploit billions of us? We produce everything of value in society. They produce nothing. Just as the slaves of antiquity did not need their slave masters, we wage slaves of today do not need our modern masters.
ICWP and Red Flag organize internationally to destroy capitalism and its wage slavery. In its place we will build communism, a system without money to chain us to anyone. Our labor power and its products will no longer be sold but shared collectively according to need.
How would communism deal with problems like the mechanic’s?
We would call a meeting to discuss how to prevent mistakes - not to be more efficient - but to guarantee the safety of us, the drivers and the public. Instead of just one mechanic, we would have a team of mechanics thoroughly inspecting and repairing each bus, no matter how long it took.
We would also discuss collectively the emotional issues workers might have, distracting them from properly doing their job, and affecting their relationships with others. Collectively, we would work to solve them. However, no one will ever face homelessness, starvation, lack of clothing or medical attention because of honest mistakes.
