FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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The Potosi miners’ strike/rebellion in July showed the potential power of workers in motion.
The provincial capital Potosi is a major mining center for silver and tin. The Potosi mines have delivered obscene amounts of wealth to their owners since 1545, when the Spanish conquistadors discovered and took over indigenous silver mining and smelting.
But mining brought the bosses’ slaves / wage slaves nothing but misery. Even today 68% of the Potosi population lives in poverty, 38% suffer malnutrition, and 100 out of 1000 babies die at birth. Miners work 12-hour shifts and have a short 40-year life expectancy because of silicosis and related diseases.
To make matters worse, Potosi has been hard hit by the current crisis of overproduction. Commodity prices have plummeted and companies are laying off miners.
The crisis has spread worldwide. Australia, Brazil and Canada, for example, have been forced into recession. In Greece and elsewhere, government defaults on debt loom. In South Africa, mining companies are threatening to fire 10,000 workers – for starters.
Communist Good News, Capitalist Disaster
Under communism, ‘over’ production would be wonderful news. For a start, miners wouldn’t have to work so hard. We could cut the shift from 12 to 6 or even 4 hours, and maintain production by bringing in currently unemployed workers to take up the slack. Of course this would only be possible because communism abolishes money and the wage system. Production would be for need, not sale.
Slowing down the work pace means taking time for safety precautions. We could also divert the no longer necessary labor power to making other things, like proper roads and hospitals.
Under capitalism, however, overproduction is a disaster. It means unemployment and possible starvation for miners. Those who remain face “lower production costs” (lower wages) and “higher productivity” (speedup and danger). As rival capitalist-imperialists compete for shrinking markets, they try to destroy the productive capacity of their rivals, which means war for control of markets, workers and resources.
The miners, almost all indigenous, are already super-exploited. The overproduction crisis further intensifies this racist super-exploitation.
The Potosi miners were having none of that. They struck and occupied the American-owned Manquiri mine. They and the Comité Cívico Potosina (Comcipo), Potosi Civic Committee called a general strike and blocked all roads leading to the town. They demanded that the Government invest in local infrastructure, like roads, hospitals, an airport and a cement factory.
These demands will mainly benefit the local bosses. The miners, however, need to fight for communism. They were the backbone of the Bolivian Communist Party and have a history of mass violent class struggle for reforms.
Joining ICWP would unleash their tremendous potential to mobilize masses of workers, soldiers, students and others for communism. Short of this, the Bolivian working class will be at the mercy of the imperialists and the local capitalists.
The Government refused to negotiate, so Comcipo sent a ‘delegation’ of several hundred miners to La Paz. They demanded to speak directly with Evo Morales, the indigenous supposedly left- wing president of Bolivia. He refused to meet them. Instead, he went off to play football. When the miners heard this they attacked the cops and the ministry building with dynamite charges. Seven ministers had to escape by the rooftops.
However, after a month-long strike food started running out and Manquiri threatened to close shop. The miners had to go back to work – for the time being.
Take Advantage of the Opportunities
What if communists had state power in South Africa or the U.S. where miners abound? At the very least, we would mobilize mass demonstrations calling for an end to overproduction crises with communist revolution. Miners in these Red zones would lead multi-racial millions to provide material and political support to those still under the yoke of capitalism in, say, Bolivia.
We in the International Communist Workers’ Party often predict workers’ rebellions but are sometimes taken by surprise when they happen. Self-critically, this was one of those times. We don’t have state power yet, but we can still organize solidarity based on communist politics. We won’t make that mistake again!
Our party’s growth in South Africa has been faster than many of us would have expected. After comrades in South Africa started reading Red Flag and the ICWP pamphlet about South Africa on the internet, they wanted to join and build the Party. We have to be ready when workers step forward like this and not be taken by surprise!
If you are reading this paper in Bolivia, please join us! Spread Red Flag. If you know people in Bolivia, please send the paper to them. Let’s build ICWP all over the world so masses of workers fight for communism and produce only for our own needs.