FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!International Communist Workers Party |
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SPAIN -- Once again, we the workers demonstrated that when we are
united, capitalism fears us. In Spain, after the recent clashes in previous May
Day demonstrations, the cops and the forces of "law and order" doubled their number in the
streets.
There are more than 24 million unemployed people in Europe. More than
six million of them live in Spain and they took to the streets to protest
against the crisis. Starting early in the morning there were confrontations,
and Red
Flag circulated again.
The 250 Red Flags we had weren't enough, but we are happy because
people already recognize our newspaper. Although there are also a lot of
detractors of communism, we keep working to popularize communist ideas
massively and to achieve a better organization for our party.
The unions, as always, presented reformist projects, demonstrating one
more time that they only care about making noise for one day and collecting
their paychecks at the end of the month. The unions in Spain, like those all
over the world, don't fight for the welfare and improvement of the working
class. They are always faithful servants of the bosses who give them subsidies
and juicy salaries. It's on days like today that they earn these salaries, and
sell false ideas to the workers such as "producing jobs," the lowering of
interest rates, more bank loans and a long list of requests that insult the
working class.
The International Communist Workers' Party once more rejected these petitions by the union sellouts and reformists. We spoke about more mobilization of the masses for communism as the way to destroy capitalism. ICWP shouted that we need to form an army to fight directly to win communism around the world. The working class urgently needs a new system, and this system is COMMUNISM. We will continue fighting and spreading communist ideas all around the world. HAPPY MAY DAY! LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!
Thousands of workers in Turkey held a one-day strike on May 15 as part
of a massive wave of protests after the May 13 Soma coal mine explosion and
fire that killed at least 300 miners and possibly hundreds more.
This political strike was fueled by mass anger at privatization and lax
regulation, and by the corrupt government's heartless response to the
disaster. "Explosions like this in
these mines happen all the time," Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan
told an angry, grieving crowd in Soma.
Soma protesters chanted: "Burn the government with Soma's coal!"
Leaders of the Association of Progressive Trade Unions are channeling
this anger into reform demands for better safety. If workers instead organize
political strikes against capitalism, they will inspire others worldwide and
lay the basis to mobilize the masses for the communist world we need.
Many survivors rushed back into the burning mine to rescue others,
joined by miners from all over Turkey.
Meanwhile, company and government officials were busy lying to TV
cameras that they were not responsible.
But in 2010, Turkish engineers and architects warned of major safety
issues in the Soma mines. Just two
weeks before the explosion, Erdogan's government
rejected a proposed investigation into mine safety.
Miners'
Lives Mean Nothing to Capitalist Rulers
Company officials didn't even know how many
workers were in the mine! "We are not even counting outsiders who
come here as part-time, unregistered workers," a miner said. He added that in some sections "we have
no idea how many people were stuck."
Most miners "are part of an unregistered economy," said a spokesman for
the Association of Progressive Trade Unions. There are ten million (or more)
"unregistered" workers in Turkey.
Some are underage. Most
migrant workers (from Bulgaria, Romania, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and
Azerbaijan) are unregistered workers in the textile industry. Most women workers are also
unregistered.
Union officials support the company's claim that no "unregistered"
miners worked at Soma. However,
suspicions remain that an uncounted number of nameless miners are buried in the
burning coal mine.
While rescue efforts proceeded in Soma, two more miners died in a West
Virginia (USA) coal mine.
They were doing very dangerous "retreat mining," cutting and collecting
the coal in the pillars left during the main dig to
support the tunnel's roof. This
collapses the tunnel and sometimes causes remaining pillars to explode.
Only capitalism's insatiable drive for maximum profits would place
miners' lives in such danger! That
same deadly institutionalized greed is at work in Turkey, where coal has been
key to capitalist economic development since 2002.
Communism:
Less Mining, Safer Mining
Capitalists love coal because it's cheap. But coal-fired electricity
contributes greatly to global climate change. Mining destroys forests and agricultural
land. That's behind the mass
protests against Mahan Coal Ltd. in Madhya Pradesh (India) and indigenous
demonstrations in Bolivia, among others.
When the working class takes power for communism, there will be much
less mining.
When workers held power in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, they built a
network of renewable-energy hydropower plants and began researching solar
energy—in spite of the country's huge coal reserves. Their accomplishments were
limited, however, because Soviet socialism was a form of state capitalism. By the 1960s, when free-market
capitalism had become entrenched, the use of cheap, dirty coal
skyrocketed.
In communist society, renewable energy sources will replace coal and
other fossil fuels. We won't risk
lives and health mining diamonds, rubies, and gold for status-enhancing
"bling." We will meet
everyone's real needs instead.
Research in science and technology will be in the hands of the workers
themselves. Organizing production
to meet needs instead of making profits will motivate workers to develop
alternatives or synthetics for many substances that are now mined.
And when mining is necessary, safety really will come first,
because those who work in the mines will themselves organize production. We will constantly seek safer
methods. We will slow or halt work
whenever a safety issue arises. And
we will cherish and account for each and every one of our sisters and brothers,
always.