“Yes,” said the MTA bus driver, “I know about the one day strike of 11,000 city workers. It’s great. I tell coworkers here that we should also strike to get what we need.”
“Striking is good,” said the International Communist Workers’ Party comrade, handing her a copy of their newspaper Red Flag. “It inspires workers to strike also. However, what we strike for is even more important.
“Workers have been striking for over 500 years. If nothing changes, our great grandchildren and their great grandchildren will still be striking. We must end this vicious cycle. We need something different.”
“I agree with you. We need something different,” repeated the MTA driver as if asking “What would be different?”
“Fighting for reforms like higher wages and more staffing,” continued our comrade, “even if won, eventually are taken away. Inflation eats whatever raises we get, and the capitalists could care less that overtime disrupts our lives and health!
“To end this vicious cycle of exploitation and strikes, we need to destroy capitalism and its wage slavery.
“Wages and money are the chains that bind us to the capitalists. A society without money – a truly communist society where we collectively produce to meet all our needs–will break those chains forever.”
Reform class struggle versus communist class struggle
For the last 175 years, the International Communist Movement mobilized hundreds of millions of workers worldwide to end capitalism and its wage slavery through revolution. Despite the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, all of these attempts failed. Why?
Because their strategy was to mobilize workers for revolution through mass struggles for reforms: Fighting for unions, higher wages, health insurance, pensions, etc.
Their biggest reform was socialism. Socialism was supposed to lead to communism. However, it kept money, wages, profits, markets and wage slavery. The communist rulers became new capitalist-imperialist enslavers. Today Russian and Chinese imperialists are fighting US imperialists for world domination – leading to WWIII.
Communist class struggle means mobilizing the masses against capitalism – not for reforms – but by raising the need to destroy capitalism by fighting for communism.
For example, the massive international multiracial movement against the police murder of George Floyd demanded: Abolish the police and defund the police.
These reformist demands were not won. The police continue to murder black, latino and white workers at will. Most are poorer workers.
The new communist movement we are building calls to abolish the police by mobilizing the masses for communist revolution. To destroy racist, sexist, anti-worker capitalism that needs the police to protect their private property and terrorize and rule over us. It points out the need to build a massive ICWP worldwide to lead the armed struggle to end capitalism.
In strikes and demonstrations, we raise the slogans: Abolish wage slavery and money with communism! Communism will end racism, sexism, nations, xenophobia, and borders by ending capitalism!
Communism is the future of the working class! Capitalism has nothing to offer us except more exploitation, poverty, racism, sexism, fascism and wars – including a possible nuclear World War III.
Communism means a life of collectivity and sharing, free of exploitation and the horrors of capitalism! Where we all contribute to society according to our ability and commitment and receive according to our need. With no exploiters or exploited, no poor or rich. Where we can all reach our full potential as human beings! Read Red Flag. Join us!
International Communist Workers’ Party www.icwpredlfg.org
