FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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July 15 – As we go to press, workers, youth and retirees in Athens are protesting the austerity bailout deal endorsed by socialist Prime Minister Tsipras. Pharmacists, government workers, teachers, students and others have called strikes.  Tens of thousands are marching and many are fighting riot police.  The chants ring out:  “No to the policies of the EU, the ECB and the IMF!”  The day will come when the chant becomes:  “No to wage slavery and capitalist rule!”
Banks closed.  Money growing scarce.  Wages not paid.  Unofficial groups organizing the distribution of food and clothing.
This is Greece now and for the immediate future.

When we communists lead the working class to power, we’ll close the banks for good.  We’ll abolish money.  Euros and Dollars, Rubles and Yuan, will be worthless pieces of paper.  We certainly won’t bring back the Drachma.
In communism workers won’t be paid because we will abolish the whole wage system.  Instead we’ll mobilize the masses to provide everyone with their needs (food, clothing, housing, healthcare etc.)  No rich, no poor, no unemployed, no homeless.  No more need for pensions, no more reason to cry outside a bank.
In the near future, no one will be providing for Greek workers, who are still under capitalist rule.  The informal distribution efforts are not large enough and are aimed at only the worst off.  Most people who aren’t being paid will have to use up their savings or rely on friends and relatives.  Mass hunger is a real possibility.  The same bankers who have caused widespread misery now talk about the coming need for “humanitarian aid.” 
Greece has some self-styled Marxists, socialists, and even “communists.”  Some are actually running the Greek government and promising German bankers they will implement an austerity plan.  None fight for real communism.  Instead they embrace Greek nationalism, wrap themselves in the Greek flag, and call for Greece to leave the European Union.  They aren’t against money, just against the Euro.  They call for a return of the Drachma.

The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) is the only party in the whole world fighting for communism.  That’s why it is so important for everyone who agrees with us to join.  Otherwise capitalist crises like the one in Greece will occur over and over, inflicting misery on tens and hundreds of millions. 
ICWP does not yet exist in Greece, but there are some Red Flag readers.  If you live in Greece or have friends there, let us know!  A few contacts could be enough to get a branch of the Party started – that has happened elsewhere.  And if you can, please translate this article into Greek or any other language you know and spread it widely.
You don’t have to be politically experienced.  You’ll learn by doing.  Everyone has something valuable to offer. 

Why is this happening now? German bankers want to rob Greek workers, inflicting slave wages and working conditions on them.  Since they are bankers/capitalists/exploiters this needs no further explanation.
But why are the German bankers so determined to bleed Greece dry, even if it means completely destroying its economy? 
There are many reasons but the main one is the continuing global crisis of overproduction.  The world’s factories can produce far more goods that the world’s markets can absorb.  This means capitalists can’t sell a lot of what the workers produce.  This means losing money, closing factories, laying off workers.

Only under capitalism can abundance create misery!  In communist society goods will be produced to meet the masses’ needs, not for sale in a market.  There will always be work for willing hands.
In the long run, capitalist crises of overproduction lead to trade wars, shooting wars, and eventually to world wars with massive destruction of productive capacity and workers’ lives.
In the shorter term, as we see today, this crisis puts capitalists at each others’ throats.  Each wants to capture markets from their rivals.  Each wants their competitors to bear the pain of overcapacity.  Within Europe the German and French bosses have off-loaded the crisis onto the weaker countries, mainly in southern Europe.
The northern European bosses derisively call these countries the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain).  They make billions loan-sharking to these countries and keeping them in debt and under austerity.
Greece (that is, the Greek bosses) have had the nerve to object.  They must be taught a lesson.  Like all loan sharks, the French and German bankers have a choice between killing the debtor or just beating him up.  So far they haven’t decided.
Meanwhile the German capitalists are trying also to discipline their main rivals in Europe, the French capitalists.

What about the arch-competitors of Germany and the US, namely China and Russia? 
The Greek government flirted with Russia.  It signed a preliminary deal, pledging to invest $2 billion in a gas pipeline financed mainly by Russia, but it got no money up front.  Chinese capitalists want to expand their purchase of ports, railways and airports in Greece.
Some comrades cite these developments as evidence that the Greek crisis reflects sharpening rivalry among the world’s leading imperialists. They argue that the Russian and Chinese bosses see an opportunity in this crisis and can be expected to step up their involvement.
Others respond that Russia doesn’t have the financial resources to take advantage of the situation.  China does, but the Chinese capitalist rulers have other international priorities.  And the global economic crisis just hit them hard with a massive stock market crash.
What’s clear is this:  Workers in Greece have been in motion against the bosses’ austerity attacks.  Millions in Europe have demonstrated solidarity.  But only communist revolution worldwide can end the horrors of wage slavery.

What We Can Learn from the Greek Drama
First, that the inner workings of capitalism produce crises that open the door for revolution.

Second, that in the midst of these crises our communist program makes a lot of sense.

Finally, that it’s urgent to spread the ICWP worldwide.  This is where you, comrade readers, come in!

It was a resounding NO to austerity.  It energized resistance to the financial powers-that-be the world over.  But it was only a vote.  It was defiant, not revolutionary.
Within days of the historic Greek vote the much-vaunted democracy of Western capitalism was exposed as a sham.  Turning their backs completely on the emphatic wishes of the masses, their democratically elected socialist representatives sent servile proposals promising further attacks on the Greek masses.  This was democracy in action:  the wishes and needs of the masses mean nothing, the needs of the masters of finance mean everything!  Democracy is a political system designed to protect capitalist rule.
It has always been so.  Democracy was developed in Greece as it became a successful monetized civilization.  Over 2500 years ago, peasant farmers in Attica rose up against the crushing debts their financial overlords in Athens had imposed on them.  Athenian rulers were afraid the peasants would ally with the slaves in the silver mines that supplied the sovereigns’ money and wealth.  They quickly granted the peasants debt cancellation and democratic rights.  For most that democracy was as useless then as it is now.
Workers don’t need elections.  We don’t need the capitalist state.  We need to build for coming revolutions for communism.

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