Consistent Struggle here Letter: Good Food, Great Company here
Consistent Struggle on the Road to Communist Revolution
SEATTLE (USA), August 13 — “Boeing workers should think about what global blue-collar workers need,” said a Boeing worker who regularly attends a growing blue-collar industrial worker collective. These workers organized three events in August. Two were social get-togethers. The last was filled with geopolitics.
The first two meetups started to include communist ideas. Concrete communist practice helped expand our party. For instance, when the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union rep went to Washington to lobby for more weapons defense spending, these workers were furious! Our new comrades raised how class consciousness around the globe can create international solidarity actions.
At the last meeting, a dozen activists debated geopolitics and communism. Everybody got a chance to make their point. One younger Boeing worker wanted to know more about the history of the US war on Vietnam. They are now reading a history of the many soldier rebellions that happened in the USA and in Vietnam.
Another worker had been transferred to the Boeing plant in South Carolina. He is in touch with several people who attended a recent potluck at the home of some ICWP comrades. He told them that he is sharing these ideas with the workers he is friends with there.
During the potluck, a comrade explained that because of the need for many more skilled blue-collar workers at Boeing, vocational training courses in the high schools have become a necessity. Especially when the capitalists are at war.
We are also reaching out to these younger workers and students in the schools as well as the teachers and staff with regular distributions of Red Flag.
No matter where the industrial workers come from, ICWP’s international industrial work is strategic to build a revolution.
The arms that Boeing and others around the world produce today to kill the working class, one day will be used to end the capitalist system with a communist revolution.
As our message spreads, more industrial workers understand their connection to worldwide war. More friends and comrades have begun to see the necessity of building essential communist bases to prepare for revolution and end all capitalist wage slavery. This kind of meeting, and Red Flag distribution at the Boeing factory gates, are consistent steps on the road to communist revolution.
Letter: Good Food, Great Company, and Political Struggle
It was a privilege for me, an out-of-town guest, to enjoy a Sunday afternoon potluck with almost a dozen comrades and friends in Seattle (USA). Half a dozen others were unable, at the last minute, to attend, mainly for health reasons.
The conversations were frank and lively, covering many political topics.
Two younger Boeing workers described their strategy of building a left-wing caucus in their union local. They hope to unite with similar caucuses at other Boeing plants. And in other industries. Eventually they would like to be able to take control of the unions’ fat bank accounts and use the funds to spread revolutionary working class ideas. That is, to build revolutionary trade unions.
Comrades pushed back. Our past experiences, and history, have shown us that organizing for reforms doesn’t bring people closer to revolution. A “revolutionary trade union” is a contradiction in terms. Trade unions negotiate the terms of wage slavery but don’t challenge its basis. The capitalist rulers and their “labor lieutenants” would break their own laws and rules to stop us from transforming them into their opposite.
That led to a conversation about talking with industrial workers on the job about broader political issues. Everyone agreed that this is a “must” especially with those who work in war industries like Boeing. But how?
We described how a retired Boeing comrade’s entire shop floor had stopped work to debate and fight over the first Trump administration’s vicious immigrant family-separation policy. This happened because the comrade had been raising communist politics consistently with many co-workers.
One guest explained her work with an environmental organization. She understands that this, too, is a fight against capitalism. Not just an educational project.
There were more examples of how talking about political disagreements brought us closer personally. One of the hosts invited everyone to join ICWP. Many seemed to take the invitation seriously.
One comrade’s long-time friend told another comrade she “wasn’t a good communist” because she had trouble imagining communist revolution in the USA. “What if there were already communist revolutions elsewhere, like India or El Salvador?” the comrade asked.
“That makes it easier to imagine,” the friend agreed.
“But national borders are just the bosses’ creations,” the comrade replied. “What if we think about ‘liberated zones’ instead of countries?” Later, the friend agreed to do more to help the Seattle comrades.
These comrades have worked long and hard to build communist relationships. They are finding creative ways to expand their circles, especially among industrial and school workers. I was glad to see some of the results at this event.
—Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)
Please send your letters, responses, and suggestions to: contact@icwpredflag.org