Letter: Mexico 1968 here Letter: What Will Work? Here Letter: The Time Is Now here (WEB ONLY)
1968: Global Student Protests and the October 2 Massacre in Mexico
On July 26, 1968, police attacked students involved in a street brawl, chasing them and beating them inside the school. This triggered protests and a rebellion.
Due to the massive demonstrations, the repressive police lost control. The government sent in the army. It was eager to bring the conflict to a swift end in the light of the impending Olympic Games, scheduled for a few months later.
The conflict escalated into a national student strike. It reflected years of oppression. The previous decade had been marked by the repression of strikes by teachers, railroad workers, doctors, and nurses.
Capitalism appeared to be thriving, with growth rates of 6 percent. But workers suffered exploitation and oppression.
Although there were “leftist” groups that followed the Soviet or Chinese line, their aim was to democratize capitalism, not to overthrow it.
When the government claimed the movement was a “communist conspiracy,” these groups were quick to deny it and champion nationalism.
The intolerant government brutally suppressed a march on October 2, leaving hundreds dead, wounded, and many imprisoned.
At that time, students in France—just as today—were also taking to the streets to protest capitalist attacks.
Since capitalist exploitation and oppression cause discontent and spark rebellion time and again, our party, ICWP, must clarify the paths to emancipation by spreading the idea of Mobilizing the Masses for Communism at every protest around the world.
—Comrade in Mexico
What Will Work?
I think Red Flag is a cool paper.
It reads to me as propaganda more than news. And I personally don’t think communism is the only solution, as the paper proposes. But rather that the solution to the problems of imperialism, racism, inequality, and such will be a combination of things that haven’t been brought together under one ideology before.
I think the best thing would be a blend of anarchist principles of mutual aid and non-coercion, communist organization and planning, as well as the communal ownership of goods like water, food, electricity, farming equipment, factories, and so on. Indigenous principles of living in reciprocity with the land and respecting the sacredness of all living things. As well as a healthy dose of pluralism and democracy.
That’s just my take, though. I really think the thing that will work is something that hasn’t been tried yet.
It has been my experience that many communists in the US are devoted deeply to their ideology. Sometimes so much so that non-communists can have difficulty collaborating due to the evangelical nature of some communist organizers.
But many are kind and rooted in principles of genuinely working to create a better world.
I think discussions like this are so important.
—High school student in California (USA)
Red Flag responds: Lots to talk about here! We hope that readers and party collectives will discuss and write on these topics.
The Time Is Now!
When we were distributing Red Flag at Boeing, a group of high school students who were heading to the mall stopped and looked at the paper. Without hesitation I jumped in and asked them if they wanted to know what young workers and students were doing to fight fascism and exploitation all over the world. They immediately said “Yes!” And I saw excitement in their eyes. Earlier I got a similar reaction from a young Boeing worker who was hurrying into work.
I think this is a very exciting time. Young workers and students here in the US, Europe, India, South Africa, and El Salvador are realizing that they are facing a future of constant wars, destruction of the environment, low-wage jobs, police brutality and more. In a way, it reminds me of the 1970’s!
Baby boomers who were coming of age then faced similar conditions. The war on Vietnam went on and on, and we started to realize that the US was not going to win. The President (Nixon) was a crook and was going to have to resign. The cities were falling apart, and thousands of workers were unemployed or on strike.
In May of 1970, students at Kent State (Ohio) who were protesting the expansion of the war to Cambodia were shot by the National Guard and four died. Eleven days later police shot and killed two students and injured twelve others at Jackson State College in Mississippi. Black students were protesting racist harassment by the cops and racist white residents. These events led to a nationwide student strike involving over four million students, and a temporary closure of hundreds of colleges and universities.
In 1971, Attica Prison, in New York state, was the site of a major rebellion of prisoners, most Black, who were protesting severe overcrowding, racism, and poor living conditions. Prisoners seized control of the prison and took hostages. Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered the State Police and National Guard to take back the prison, killing thirty-three inmates and ten hostages.
Do young people know any of this history? Probably not very much, is my guess. The Soweto rebellion? It was led by young schoolchildren. May 1968, France…students started it and millions of workers joined them in a general strike that shook all of France. The 1919 General Strike in Seattle, the fight for the 8-hour day, the Paris Commune, and more.
Young people need to know that making a change doesn’t mean voting for the lesser of 2 evils. Of course, it’s all reform. But if workers and their families are capable of making important changes at the reform level, why can’t we make the really big change from capitalism to communism?
Fight for a Red Future!
—Seattle (USA) comrade
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