FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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Anti-Social and Counter-Revolutionary Behavior in Communist Society
I want to contribute something about anti-social and counter-revolutionary behavior in communism after the revolution.
After the revolution is victorious, many workers will still not be completely convinced about communism and who may take an antisocial attitude. It could be because they were better-paid or because, having been poor, they continue thinking like the rich.
If these workers are part of the labor force they will certainly change the way they think, because they will be pressured socially by the communist conduct of the masses of workers. But if they are people of advanced age, and if they refuse to change, they will be isolated and despised by society. Also, they will soon leave this world and with them, they will take their bad habits, bad beliefs and anti-social customs.
The revolution will also force many small bosses to declare themselves in favor of the revolution, but this declaration could be false. These small bosses might stay on the fence, hoping that the revolution presents some opening to take advantage to leap to the anticommunist side and start an anti-communist political campaign.
Therefore we will have to keep them under constant watch for as long as necessary.
Thus, after the victory of the revolution against capitalism there will be much work to do. The struggle will continue against armed counter-revolutionary groups, against those who stay hidden and dedicate themselves to acts of sabotage and those who do not want to work collectively.
Also there are other social evils of capitalism that have damaged the society like sexual predators. However, I think that when anyone commits acts of this kind in communism it will be very difficult for them to avoid execution by the people. These kinds of social evils will still exist, maybe for a long time, until communist society has been definitely consolidated.
After the communist revolution it will be the children in the schools to whom we will dedicate all possible efforts in their communist education. Obviously the teachers have to be members of ICWP. In this way the children will be learning from an early age what communist behavior is and what is anti-social in a communist society. And as they grow they will become good leaders of society.
--Farmworker member of ICWP
Letter Writing for Red Flag
I thank the comrade who wrote suggesting guidelines for Red Flag. It’s a worthwhile project.
Any list I made would start with communist content. Each article ought to explain what communism is and how it will work. It should be our focus in the beginning, the middle and the end of what we write.
Exposing capitalism is not enough. Exposing the bosses’ agents in our fight-backs is not enough. Phrases like “It’s only going to get worse, much worse!” won’t mobilize the masses for communism.
As the original guidelines letter writer pointed out communist revolution is not a “magic wand.”
First, communism consists of a material economic base. Production is collective without wages, banks and the whole capitalist financial system. The aim of production is to provide for our needs, not bosses’ profits.
This material base opens up a new vista for struggle. Nonetheless, we will be faced with centuries of capitalist indoctrination after we take state power. The political struggle to overcome that poison in our midst will dominate our lives as we fight to consolidate communism.
The last issue of Red Flag includes many articles that describe this struggle. The editorial on the racist Charleston murders and the article on how communism will free up labor for useful work in LA come to mind.
These pieces (and others) explain the alternate to capitalism with concrete examples. The examples are more than speculation. They combine our present day practice with 150 years of working-class communist struggle and theory. We know more than we think about how a collective society works!
We struggle to mobilize the masses for communism, but we don’t live communism today. Communism requires a communist economic base to carry the struggle on to final victory. That’s why we need a revolution and the ICWP.
So next on the list is how the party works. All too often, we wait until the end of an article to insert a call to join. The lifeblood of communism is building the party today. Let’s include the party in the beginning, the middle and the end as well.
To round off the list of the top three I would infuse our articles with the voice of the masses.
A guy at work hands me note cards and a pen when we discuss the struggles confronting us. He expects me to take notes for Red Flag. I should ask him again to write for the paper and our website.
Our masthead says, “Mobilize the Masses for Communism.” Our articles should do just that.
--Seattle comrade
Communists Tell the Truth: War Preparations Escalate
“When it becomes serious, you have to lie,” said the president of the European Union, who is a key leader in negotiations with Greek capitalists. He quickly added, “Lying requires secret negotiations.” He’s not alone. Politicians controlled by capitalist bosses do the same thing to keep the working class tied to wage slavery and exploitation. So do union officials. Pro-boss contracts and preparations for wars for profit are made in secret.
It’s really important to keep in mind that the rivalry among imperialist countries is escalating into war preparations.
Germany has embarked upon a multi-billion Euro plan to create a global military force.
US capitalists want to prevent Russia and China from getting a foothold in Europe by developing a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons, sited near Russia and in Asia.
Russia is set to deploy its most advanced nuclear attack submarines off the coast of Alaska.
Japan is also rapidly and aggressively building its navy and air force.
Russia and China are developing an air defense system to strike with nuclear weapons and survive a counter-attack.
Our Party ICWP is preparing the working class for violent armed revolution to overthrow deadly capitalism. Unlike the bosses, we communists have nothing to hide. As Karl Marx said, “the communists disdain to conceal their view and aims.”
We want Red Flag readers, our coworkers and friends to join ICWP. First and foremost that means a commitment to be in a collective with other Party members. It also means contributing money according to each person’s ability to help support the publication of Red Flag and other work.
The struggle to recruit Party members requires us to deepen our ties with the workers. We must understand the obstacles that prevent them from joining and struggle to overcome them.
--A comrade
Seeds of Revolution
The Greek masses are on to something. The relentless attacks on the pensions, wages, services and jobs of the working class have produced a level of mass organization that can inspire all of us. Starting in 2008, recalling their past fights against the Nazi occupation, neighborhoods, football (soccer) fan clubs and some workplaces began organizing Assemblies.
At first these dealt with local issues but increasingly after 2012 they began organizing against the fascist “Golden Dawn Party” while in part building a new electoral party, Syriza.
These Assemblies are the focus of sharp political debate and actions with organized and unorganized revolutionary elements. They engaged with reformist groupings but they have built what they term a “Solidarity Economy.” Medical and educational services, clothing and food distributions are organized not as acts of “charity’ but as acts of solidarity.
These Assemblies could be schools for communism. Even a small group of comrades in ICWP, struggling for the need to fight directly for communism, could shift the debate towards a revolutionary strategy.
The Assemblies provide the international working class a much-needed example: the experience of a working class responding to relentless capitalist attacks by creating the seeds of a communist economy based on sharing. You are what you do and these Assemblies are building self-confidence among Greek workers that they can survive without the intervention of the Capitalist State.
Much was made in the US press about the inability to get more than $60 a day out of the ATM machines but to many Greek workers that meant nothing. They haven’t seen $60 a day for years! To some the Assemblies are more vital to their day-to-day existence than the banks.
It was these Assemblies that produced the massive voter turnout. For all its weaknesses the massive “No” vote should be seen as a measure of working-class confidence in its ability to organize itself. That confidence, that the working class can rule the world, that we don’t need any bosses, that we can share what we produce, is essential to the fight for a communist society.
So, too, is a communist party with a clear vision of the society we want to build, and the strategy to carry out the long-term revolutionary struggle for workers’ power. We call on Red Flag readers in Greece and around the world to build ICWP in these struggles
--Bay Area Red
Enthusiastic and Ready to Participate in a Study Group
I am a mechanic at MTA (LA Transit) and my life-long partner cleans houses. One of our children, with economic struggles, graduated from the University, with the hope of developing his imaginative potential as a writer.
However capitalism does not need thinkers, but instead people who serve to help move the wheels of capitalism.
He got a job in another city, with a magazine that is popular among the youth, especially black youth. His position of sales assistant, as he said, has given greater meaning to him about why we fight for communism.
Last weekend we went to visit him and we met the family from whom he rents a room. It was an agreeable experience to share with the members of this family.
The day we arrived they had a bar-b-que to which we had been invited, but at first we felt a little uncomfortable and insecure. But the human warmth and solidarity of these new friends erased any barrier, and little by little the conversation became political.
At the beginning it was about education, since there were teachers there who complained that current education does not serve to create or educate thinkers, but to instill capitalist ideas and distorted history.
Then we talked about the great misery in which working-class humanity lives, about racism, and the conclusion was the need to fight to change this state of affairs.
Among those present apart from the teachers were a bus driver from Oakland Metro, an MTA mechanic from Los Angeles, a waitress and others. They were black, white, latino, and asian. The whole range of colors, and it was emphasized that the color of the people isn’t important, what is important is the class you belong to, and that we workers must be united by necessity. Our son was very impressed to find other youth who would like to change the world.
The potential to work politically with this group excited him a lot and he decided to join a Party communist study group and to write for Red Flag in the future.
--Comrade Mechanic
Envisioning Our Communist Future
It’s exciting to read more and more in Red Flag about how we expect communist society to work.
We learn from the best efforts and the mistakes of the past. We try to put communist principles in action in our work today, and then project them into a future where the masses have power. We study why capitalism can’t solve our problems and how communism will remove the obstacles in our way.
All this takes creativity and imagination as well as consistent political work among the masses. The more comrades and friends who contribute their ideas, the better!
Naturally we won’t always agree. That will still be true during and after communist revolution. The entwined combination of political struggle and practical work are central to mobilizing the masses for communism.
More and more of us must learn to think critically and act collectively, starting now.
Others before us have imagined how a communist society could work. Some wrote stories about it. Few of us would agree with everything they depicted. But they can help get our communist creative juices flowing.
One “oldie but goodie” is News from Nowhere, published by the communist William Morris in 1890. Morris wrote this story in opposition to William Bellamy’s famous socialist novel Looking Backward.
The future Morris imagined had no money and no social classes. The distinctions between town and country and between “mental” and “manual” labor had been erased, though relations between the sexes didn’t seem to have changed much. This book is available in Spanish as NOTICIAS DE NINGUNA PARTE.
Another is Woman on the Edge of Time, a science-fiction novel written by the anarcho-feminist Marge Piercy in 1976. She, too, described in detail (though differently) how society might function without money or class, racism or sexism.
Some of what Piercy imagined is far-fetched. Some reflected her mistaken politics. But if you like this sort of thing, it’s a good read.
What books have you read that help us think concretely about communism? Maybe you want to write one!
--Reader