FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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When the masses move, reality changes…fast! A few weeks ago Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn was a left-wing socialist with a 250-to-1 chance of winning the leadership of the Labor Party – one of the two major capitalist Parties in Britain. Today he leads that Party after a landslide victory.
“Suddenly,” a socialist friend from Britain wrote, “there is all sorts of talk about nationalizing the banks and creating a republic.… England has never been so alive with prospects of progress since the Miners’ strike (the year long strike against Thatcher in the 1980s that began to look like a civil war).”
“The vote,” we communists argue, “changes nothing!” It can, however, reveal some things. Although the ‘landslide’ victory within the Labor Party was produced by only ½ percent of the electorate at large (that’s millions less than actively supported the miners during their struggle), it has filled the ruling class with alarm.
“Corbyn Wants to Abolish the Army,” one headline read. Corbyn is calling for Britain out of NATO. The Sunday Times of London published an article from an active general in the Army. He and his fellow generals would challenge Corbyn on “…pulling out of NATO and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces. The Army wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow the prime minister to jeopardize the security of this country and …would use whatever means possible, foul or fair, to prevent that.” The British bosses were forced to reveal that their rule over the working class is based on military force.
Another article quoted an “intelligence chief” clearly stating “None of the intelligence community – whether talking about the security services or the counter terrorism police bosses – would give Corbyn, or any of his cabinet, information they don’t want to give.”
“Political power,” the Chinese communists in their revolutionary days argued, “grows out of the barrel of a gun.” This is partly true, even in well-established capitalist countries like Britain. Corbyn, of course, knows this and the general’s message wasn’t aimed at Corbyn. It was aimed at his youthful supporters. It’s aimed at lowering their revolutionary expectations!! It’s a warning shot so to speak.
Corbyn’s role, like that of Bernie Sanders in the US and Tsipras in Greece, is to tie those masses, especially youth, who are furious at capitalism to the bosses’ elections, to divert them from communist revolution.
An article in the elite Financial Times explains, “In another age, the 2008 crash might have triggered a revolution. Instead, Mr. Corbyn and his fellow travelers are now capturing the seething popular resentment. They do not have answers…They understand though that something has to give.”
When the masses move, reality changes…fast. In Britain at the moment it is taking the form of a revolt in the Labor Party. In other countries it is taking other forms. No matter what country, no matter what continent, the masses are in motion – triggered by the same on-going crisis of capitalism.
The question for us, readers and distributors of Red Flag, is how can we capture ‘the seething popular resentment’ of the masses? We, after all, do have answers. We work, for example, with soldiers. As a result we doubt the British soldiers who for over two decades now have been placed against better equipped insurgents in Basra, Iraq, or Helmand Province, Afghanistan, have anything but contempt for their NATO-loving, high-salaried generals. Yet the threats from the nameless general highlight for us all the need for revolutionary military work no matter where we live.
There can be no revolution without a Red Army. We cannot wipe out banks and a stratified society based on private property and mass exploitation without the masses asserting their authority through an armed insurrection. And we couldn’t defend such a revolution without a Red Army. But such an army will be an army of a new type – an army that reflects a communist, not socialist, society. It will be an army with leaders, not generals. It will be an army based in communities and centers of production, not separated off in barracks. It will be an army that leads “the seething popular resentment” against capitalism, its crises and imperialist wars.
Political power flows out of the barrel of a gun, but for successful communist revolution, those holding the guns must have communist ideas. We urge Red Flag readers in the UK and world wide to join ICWP, read, write for and distribute Red Flag to your friends, and organize ICWP clubs. A lot of people don’t see the possibility of communism, but reality can change…fast. By spreading Red Flag and the fight for communism, masses of workers and youth can mobilize to make communism a reality.